Chalkbeat

After technical snafu, NYC says staggered school start times may be necessary for remote snow days

2024-03-06T23:36:26+00:00

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After technical glitches prevented many families from logging in for remote learning during a snowstorm last month, officials on Wednesday presented a temporary fix: staggered start times.

The Education Department no longer cancels classes during inclement weather in part due to a growing number of school holidays and a state mandate to provide 180 days of school. As a snowstorm threatened to upend commutes on Feb. 13, city officials announced schools would operate remotely — the first citywide test of that strategy. But many families and educators encountered error messages when they tried to log in, drawing intense criticism.

During a City Council oversight hearing on Wednesday focused on the technical snafus, Education Department officials said the problem stemmed from too many users logging in at once. The city outsources the login process for its remote learning platforms to IBM, and both Education Department and IBM officials acknowledged the technical specifications in their contract did not guarantee everyone would be able to sign on during a short window.

The city is looking for a long-term solution to avoid spreading out start times, but Education Department officials said it will be necessary for now in the event of another pivot to remote learning.

“If we have a remote learning day tomorrow we should be working to stagger start times, which we agree is not ideal from a student and staff perspective,” Emma Vadehra, the department’s chief operating officer, told city lawmakers. “But it’s pretty important to us that we get it right if we do need to transition.”

Vedehra suggested that start times could be assigned by grade level and would need to be spread over a little more than one hour to ensure the sign-in process goes smoothly. Officials did not provide a timeline for coming up with a more permanent solution and some elected officials raised concerns about the approach.

“I think staggered times will be very confusing to people,” said Gale Brewer, a Manhattan city council member.

Wednesday’s hearing included the most detailed accounting yet of why families had trouble logging on for remote learning on Feb. 13. The core issue was that IBM was only contracted to handle up to 400 “transactions per second” — with one login attempt potentially using multiple “transactions,” said Scott Strickland, the education department’s deputy chief information officer. There are more than 1 million public school students and staff. (Strickland was the acting chief information officer on Feb. 13.)

In September, IBM bumped up the number of transactions per second to 1,400. As login issues mounted on Feb. 13, the day the city switched to remote learning, IBM increased the throughput to 3,000, which made the problem worse, Strickland said. The company ultimately landed on 2,000 transactions per second, which was still not enough to accommodate everyone who was trying to log in.

City officials said they did not have data on how many students and staff were unable to log in, though IBM officials said the system was “stable” by 10:15 a.m. and there were more than a million successful login attempts that day. The company has since recommended a more customized system, at an unspecified cost, that will automatically adjust based on demand.

In the aftermath of the tech glitches, city officials largely blamed IBM, a characterization the company pushed back against on Wednesday.

“We really had done everything we can to make sure that this technology was working above and beyond what it was contracted to do,” Vanessa Hunt, IBM’s senior state executive for New York, said Wednesday. “Hearing it be summarized as an IBM technology problem was, of course, frustrating.”

City officials had previously conducted practice sessions to make sure students could log in and prepared schools to distribute devices. But they did not involve IBM in those tests, Hunt said.

Hunt said she wished the city gave IBM more lead time to plan; city officials gave IBM a heads up that they planned to pivot to remote instruction at 1 p.m. the previous day, city officials said.

“Ideally, we would have been planning way before the day before,” Hunt said, adding the company now has a communication plan in place with the Education Department. “I think we would have been a part of the simulations, a part of the planning, and we would have been able to better advise the DOE on potentially staggering start times.”

Several City Council members expressed frustration that there hadn’t been more rigorous testing of IBM’s systems before the switch to remote instruction, with some casting blame on the city.

“If you have an elevator, and the elevator can only hold 1,000 pounds, and you put 7,000 pounds in the elevator, and the elevator gets stuck, is it fair to blame the elevator company in that situation?” said Queens City Council member Shekar Krishnan. “There seems to be a lot of blame, or at least passing the buck to IBM.”

At another point in the hearing, Intekhab Shakil, the Education Department’s chief information officer, seemed to acknowledge some responsibility for the technical problems. “We did not pay enough attention” to ensure that the company could quickly ramp up to meet demand during a sudden switch to remote learning, he said.

“We will work with IBM,” he added, “to ensure this does not happen again.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Schools scale back home internet help as remote learning fades

2022-09-27T04:01:00+00:00

With students off Zoom and back in classrooms, many schools have stopped helping students get online at home, new federal data shows.

Just 45% of public schools are providing home internet access to students who need it this school year, down from 70% earlier in the pandemic, according to August survey data released Tuesday by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The sharp decline in schools giving students Wi-Fi hotspots or covering the cost of home internet coincides with the end of widespread remote learning, first caused by school closures then by COVID quarantines. Yet even with schools fully reopened, students still are likely to need home internet for homework, sick days, temporary school shutdowns, virtual tutoring, and parent-teacher conferences.

And while home internet and device access expanded during the pandemic, 1 in 4 low-income families still did not have broadband internet at home a year after schools shut down, according to a 2021 survey. Instead many students had to put up with frustratingly slow internet speeds or work on their phones.

As recently as this spring, about a quarter of teenagers living in very low-income households said they sometimes can’t complete their homework because they don’t have reliable computer or internet access.

“I think there’s an inaccurate belief that more students and families actually have connectivity than actually do,” said D’Andre Weaver, chief digital equity officer at Digital Promise, a nonprofit focused on expanding student access to high-speed internet.

Weaver suspects that schools’ retreat from home internet assistance also reflects a new wariness of online learning based on the negative experiences had by many families and educators during the pandemic. But he argues that schools should try to improve online learning and expand internet access rather than turn away.

“Now it’s like, ‘Let’s throw the baby out with the bathwater,’” he said. “And that’s the wrong viewpoint.”

Just over 900 public schools participated in the survey, which was conducted August 9-23.

While less than half of schools said students will be provided with internet at home, 56% said students can get online at other locations, such as public libraries. Laptops and tablets appear to be much more readily available, with 94% of schools saying that students who need a digital device this academic year will be provided one.

Funding is another likely factor in schools’ scaling back support for home internet access. The federal stimulus money that school districts used to pay for hotspots and free internet plans is drying up, forcing schools to find other funding if they want to keep providing assistance.

Also, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that Congress passed last year included $14.2 billion for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides a monthly subsidy to help low-income families pay for internet service. Several major internet providers agreed to lower their prices so that the subsidy — up to $30 per month for most eligible households — would cover the full cost of a high-speed internet plan.

In a sense, the federal program removes schools as intermediaries by giving the internet subsidy directly to families. However, advocates say that schools still must support families who haven’t enrolled in the program or aren’t eligible.

New Jersey parent Nadirah Brown said she earns too much to receive the new subsidy but not enough to pay her more than $100 monthly internet bill without cutting other expenses.

“For the parents who don’t qualify, there is no program available for them,” she said, whose daughter is an eighth grader in a Newark public school.

The school lent her daughter a laptop and offered a Wi-Fi hotspot during remote learning, Brown said. But it did not offer either device this school year, even as teachers continue to assign homework that must be submitted online through Google Classroom, she added.

“It’s definitely still needed whether they’re working virtually or not,” she said about home internet.

A Newark Public Schools spokesperson did not immediately respond to emailed questions Monday.

In Newark, like many other cities, high-speed internet is widely available. The main problem is that many families cannot afford it, said Ronald Chaluisán, executive director of the Newark Trust for Education, a nonprofit whose mission includes promoting equitable internet access.

While they could benefit from the new federal subsidy, Chaluisán said many families are not aware of it. (Nationwide, less than 25% of eligible families enrolled in a previous iteration, called the Emergency Broadband Benefit.) Some families also struggle to complete the multi-step enrollment process, said Chaluisán, whose organization is partnering with the nonprofit Project Ready to spread awareness about the subsidy program.

He added that one lesson of remote learning is that every student needs a computer and internet access at home.

“They’re not luxury items,” he said. “They’re just necessities.”

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

A ‘sick-out’ over teacher pay leads Adams City High School to switch to remote learning

2024-02-14T17:38:02+00:00

This story has been updated with additional comments from Adams 14 officials.

Adams 14 will move students at Adams City High School to remote learning Wednesday after learning many teachers were planning a sick-out, the district announced Tuesday

The action was not organized or sanctioned by the teacher’s union in the district, but by a group of teachers in the high school who are frustrated by a lack of prospects for teacher raises.

A letter circulated by staff that is signed by “Adams 14 District CTA Membership” — implying it is from members of the teacher’s union but not union leadership — states the concern is about how pay is affecting teacher retention.

“Our intention is not to disrupt education, but to voice our concerns regarding teacher retention, fair compensation, benefits, time management, and the overall need for a positive change by leadership,” the letter states. “The constant turnover in staff has hindered our mission to elevate our district from its current status. We acknowledge the financial challenges faced by the district, but we cannot overlook the disproportionate impact on teachers and staff compared to the recent raises and contract improvements that have been enjoyed by district leadership.”

In the current school year, a starting teacher’s salary is $50,500.

Many teachers believe that Superintendent Karla Loría and other district leaders have had recent raises, but there are no public documents demonstrating a school board vote for a raise for the superintendent or other district leaders.

On Wednesday morning, Joe Salazar, an attorney for the district, said he did not know how many Adams City High teachers had called in sick. Asked if teachers would be disciplined, Salazar wrote in an email, “Why would they be disciplined? They have the right to call in sick.”

As for Loría’s salary, Salazar said only that her “base salary” is $250,000. That has been her base salary since 2022, when the board gave her a raise to acknowledge that the district was no longer under third-party management.

Loría’s contract with the district states that she is to receive annual raises that amount to year-over-year change in the local consumer price index. It’s unclear if that has happened.

The Adams 14 school district has had low state ratings based largely on student test scores for more than 10 years, but was released from state orders to reorganize after leaders for the district and neighboring districts said it was not in anyone’s interest to reorganize.

The district has had declining enrollment like many metro area school districts. Some leaders still blame the years the district was ordered to be under management by private company MGT Consulting as the reason for continued budget problems.

Jason Malmberg, the president of the teachers union in Adams 14, said he believes the frustrations stem from the state intervention in the district.

“It’s related to the stress the state has put us under,” he said.

Malmberg said the frustrations facing teachers at Adams City High School are reflective of problems teachers face in high-poverty districts across the nation as it becomes more difficult to stretch budgets to serve children’s needs, and as gaps widen between districts that can raise local funds and districts that can’t.

School districts in Adams County have not had much success when it comes to asking local voters to raise taxes for schools. Adams 14 leaders have long hoped that the community would vote to approve a bond or mill levy request if the district showed improvement.

After MGT, Loría wanted to work with another third-party management firm, TNTP, that also cost the district millions. The contract with TNTP originally called for Adams 14 to pay $5 million over three years. The district last year tried to cut ties with the group early, citing budget concerns and other reasons. The state offered to give the district more money to help cover the contract, but the district eventually signed a new, reduced contract that cost only $395,587 for the second year of work.

Citing budget problems, the district also closed an elementary school and has said it is considering more closures in the future.

Some teachers, however, are concerned about whether the district leadership team has grown too large, including with many of Loría’s former colleagues, and wonder if new contracts have also taken up much of the budget.

In a letter obtained by Chalkbeat that is signed by the superintendent and addressed to a leader of the union at the high school, Loría stated that “the district will take action on all absences related to the planned sick-out.”

Loría also stated in the letter that she agrees that teachers need better pay and that the board is exploring a local tax request to increase revenue to be able to pay teachers more. But she accused the teacher leader of being abusive and violating policies.

“Your conduct and comments with me and certain cabinet members were unprofessional and disrespectful to the point of being abusive,” Loría wrote. “Your conduct was aggressive and defamatory (several times you claimed that the district was lying about the budget and “hiding” money), and you directed personal attacks against me while mansplaining matters of which you are wholly unfamiliar, while pointing your finger at me several times.”

In a reply also obtained by Chalkbeat, the teacher leader responded to Loría’s letter rejecting the accusations. The teacher leader, who did not respond to an interview request, said Loría’s letter had a “perceived retaliatory tone,” and that he plans to seek legal counsel.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Technical meltdown prevents NYC students from logging onto virtual classes during remote snow day

2024-02-13T23:56:39+00:00

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Teachers and students across New York City were shut out of their virtual classes Tuesday morning, a major glitch as city officials ordered schools to offer remote instruction because of the snowstorm.

The tech problems prevented many — though not all — teachers and students from logging into Zoom, Google Classroom, school email accounts, and even attendance tracking tools.

City officials largely blamed the technical snafu on IBM, which helps manage the login process for the city’s remote learning platforms. During a midday press conference, Chancellor David Banks said IBM was not prepared for the crush of users logging in at once but problems were being ironed out.

More than one million students and staff had successfully signed on, officials said. Still, student attendance fell to 78% down from 87% on Monday, according to preliminary data that does not yet include all schools.

“To say that I am disappointed, frustrated, and angry is an understatement,” Banks said, adding the department would conduct a “full analysis” of what went wrong. “This was a test. I don’t think that we passed this test.”

Tuesday represented the first time the entire school system was expected to go virtual during a snowstorm — a major test of the city’s strategy to switch to remote learning instead of canceling classes due to inclement weather. To give schools and families time to prepare, officials announced nearly a full day in advance their plans to close school buildings. Banks vowed teachers would be ready to deliver live lessons that mirror a traditional school day.

But as students and teachers tried to log on Tuesday morning, many encountered an error message that displayed a digital image of a lone teacher standing on a podium. On some campuses, tech problems derailed much of the morning’s lessons. Other schools didn’t seem to be affected, making the scale of the outage unclear. An IBM spokesperson said Tuesday afternoon the issues had been “largely resolved” and “we regret the inconvenience to students and parents across the city.”

Some parents and educators said the technical difficulties reminded them of the early days of the pandemic. The damage could reverberate, some worry.

One Manhattan elementary school leader who had to cancel morning classes because of the tech problems, said, “The bigger impact is … the intangible piece: the trust, the perception of competence, which was a major issue during COVID.”

Adam Schwartz, a teacher at Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School in Brooklyn, said his second grade daughter’s morning class was disrupted, though she was able to successfully login around 9 a.m.

Schwartz, who teaches English to students who are new to the country, said he was dreading remote instruction on Tuesday, as his students often shy away from participating during in-person classes. But they seemed more comfortable in the virtual environment, regularly chiming in with emojis. His classes weren’t affected by the outage because they started later in the day.

“It was kind of a slight remove from the normal social pressures of school that make it so difficult for kids to communicate,” Schwartz said. “And it allowed me to be a little silly.” Due to back problems, he logged into his classes sprawled on his belly on his kitchen floor. Still, only about half of his students showed up.

Remote learning practice runs didn’t help

City officials had previously conducted practice runs with students and families so the system would be prepared in the event of a remote snow day. But Michael Mulgrew, head of the city’s teachers union, said only smaller groups of students and teachers logged on at once.

“When we did the citywide test in October, we assumed it was a stress test. It turns out that’s not what the DOE did,” he said in an interview.

Some schools weathered the glitches better than others because they’ve held onto their school-specific websites and email accounts despite the Education Department asking them to do otherwise. Because of security concerns, the Education Department has been pushing schools to move to a centrally run domain, which no longer lets schools control the login process. But that central login system failed on Tuesday.

”If we still ran everything through our Gmail, today would have been fine,” one high school principal said.

Despite Banks’ assurance that schools would be ready to offer plenty of live teaching, some students and educators said there was less than usual.

Christian Rojas Linares, a senior at Manhattan’s University Neighborhood High School, said his teachers posted assignments online and, with a couple exceptions, were on hand to help students work through them. But some of his classes felt more like office hours than typical periods of instruction, and in certain cases there were just a handful of students in attendance, he said.

“When it comes to remote learning, you often tend to not get stuff done for the most part,” Rojas Linares said.

Still, he appreciated that the remote atmosphere was less stressful than a regular school day and noted his AP environmental science teacher used class time to help prepare for a test scheduled for Wednesday. “Even though it didn’t feel like a real class, I was still able to get work done,” he said.

Matthew Willie, the school’s principal, said his teachers were well prepared to switch to remote learning and did not contend with major glitches. Willie said he dropped into 15 to 20 virtual classrooms throughout the day and “there was good attendance and direct instruction taking place,” he said.

Willie said Rojas Linares’ experience may be unusual because he’s enrolled in a slew of advanced classes that tend to enroll a smaller number of students. “I really think the day went well for us,” he said.

Decisions about whether to call a snow day are typically contentious and come with tradeoffs, as many families rely on school for meals and may struggle to line up child care. Though some called on the city to cancel classes entirely, there is little room in the school calendar thanks to a growing number of holidays and a state requirement to hold 180 school days.

By afternoon, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park was a mix of slush and snow. Some parents expressed disappointment at the paltry amount of powder covering the ground, but kids were making the most of it, sledding down any hill they could find, sometimes wearing down the snow enough to see patches of mud and grass sticking out.

After an hour of online school, Christine Joyce, mom of a second grader and kindergartener at P.S. 321, made the executive decision to take her kids to the park.

“Zoom this morning was a little rough,” she said, noting that her kids were ultimately able to access their virtual classrooms, but she called it quits shortly after for a real snow day because she wanted her kids to experience some joy in the snow. They spent several hours building snowmen and forts, having snowball fights and sledding.

Kids were out in full force to sled in Brooklyn's Prospect Park even though the snow wasn't deep.

Abby Loomis, a fourth grade teacher at P.S. 414 in Brooklyn, said she appreciated the city’s early decision to pivot to remote instruction.

The vast majority of her students were able to log in, but challenges remained. During a math lesson, her students struggled to input fractions on their keyboards. Some children filled the virtual chat room with messages about wanting to play outside in the snow. And she opted to avoid continuing a social studies unit on slavery, a topic that felt too difficult to discuss in an online format.

Instead, she leaned more heavily on work students could complete on their own, such as editing biographies they’re writing about figures including Taylor Swift and Simone Biles. She devised a fun snow day checklist, including finding hot chocolate and throwing a snowball.

“It should just not be a rigorous rigid day,” Loomis said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Education Department announced this week’s experiment with remote learning will be brief. Traditional in-person classes will resume Wednesday.

Michael Elsen-Rooney contributed to this story.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

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

How many NJ students are still being taught virtually? No one seems to know.

2024-02-06T22:38:44+00:00

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New Jersey school districts are using virtual learning to fill educational gaps caused by teacher shortages, but advocates and lawmakers say they don’t have a clear picture of how many classes are taught virtually.

At a joint meeting of the Senate and Assembly education committees, teachers, superintendents, advocates, and virtual learning companies shared anecdotal evidence about how online instruction is used in schools. Advocates urged lawmakers to pass legislation directing the Department of Education to collect data on online instruction and impose regulations.

The state is continuing to face a shortage of teachers and other staff, which is leading schools to turn to virtual instruction in what several superintendents said is a last resort. Speakers agreed that an in-person teacher is preferable to a virtual one whenever possible, but often there are no qualified teachers available.

“There is a teacher shortage, and it is at a crisis stage. As a result of that, we need alternatives to be able to properly educate our children,” Hamilton Township Superintendent Scott Rocco said. “As superintendents in the state of New Jersey, we want highly qualified New Jersey certified teachers in front of our students. They are not available.”

Rocco said his district has supplemented its in-person education with online services after exhausting every option, from hiring a new teacher to finding current teachers to take on an additional class during their prep or duty period, when they would not normally be teaching.

Districts still looking for in-person teachers

Even after signing a contract with an online vendor, Rocco said the district continues to look for in-person teachers for every classroom. In the meantime, online learning has worked as a last resort, he said.

Superintendents using virtual learning in their districts said they view it as a temporary solution while they look for full-time teachers. But the New Jersey Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state, expressed concern that without regulations the practice could become more widespread.

“Virtual instruction cannot be normalized in New Jersey public schools. It is our collective responsibility to ask for clear direction to rein in what is happening under the radar right now,” said Deb Cornavaca, NJEA government relations director.

Because school districts’ contracts with providers of virtual instruction are approved by local school boards, there is no statewide data about the use of online learning.

In some cases, the virtual teacher meets with students in real time and in others, students access online material at their own pace without live sessions. School districts are using online learning as short-term and full-year solutions at every school level, Cornavaca said.

Is current virtual instruction legal?

Cornavaca warned the way virtual instruction is being used right now may be illegal, because there is no legal basis for virtual instruction in the state except for individualized student learning opportunities and health emergencies, she said. Representatives of other education groups disagreed.

Jennifer Paulino, a high school technology teacher, said in her district, Robbinsville, the district dismissed about 25 teachers and replaced two of them with online instructors. In one class, physics, the course is now taught without any hands-on learning and looks more like a study hall, with kids socializing and doing work for other classes, she said. The courses are offered asynchronously, so students must ask any questions over email and wait for a response, Paulino said.

George Solter, superintendent of North Bergen School District, said his district is using the online service Proximity Learning for three classes in the district. Once the district finds teachers, it will terminate its contract with Proximity, which runs on a month-to-month basis, he said.

Proximity’s founder Evan Erdberg said the company’s goal is not to replace in-person learning but to give students access to a certified teacher while their district looks for an in-person teacher. The company has over 40 clients in the state, he said. The company’s teachers use the local school district’s curriculum and only offer synchronous sessions.

Many of Proximity’s teachers are recent retirees or people on maternity leave from teaching positions in New Jersey because the company allows teachers to work part time, Erdberg said. A growing proportion of teachers are millennials, who want more flexibility to teach from anywhere and travel, he added.

Another online provider, Imagine Learning, is in around two dozen New Jersey districts, according to Dan Savarese, the company’s partnership manager for New Jersey.

“We’re not there to replace a teacher. We’re there as a backup plan to schools,” said Kimberlin Rivers, Imagine Learning’s vice president of instruction.

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.

NYC schools conduct remote learning practice ahead of winter recess

2023-12-06T22:42:57+00:00

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New York City public schools families: Get ready to log into remote classrooms this week as the city prepares for potential weather-related or other school building closures.

Families may have already received communications from their schools urging them to sign into online accounts and take other steps to prepare for possible remote learning days. The guidance comes just weeks before the winter recess and as the city has endured several severe weather events this year.

“We are striving to ensure that students have the tools that they need to avoid interruptions in their learning in the face of emergencies, including inclement weather,” said Chyann Tull, a spokesperson for the city’s Education Department. “We will have students at every New York City Public School practice logging in and engaging in remote activities in their classrooms to make for smooth transitions in emergency situations.”

Students will still attend school in person on the day of their remote practice, according to city officials. The practices across the city’s 1,600 schools are expected to take place by Friday.

Since the onset of the pandemic, remote learning has been an alternative to canceling classes on days when the weather prevents students from traveling to school. In New York City, that meant the end of snow days as the city seeks to ensure it meets the state mandated 180 days of instruction per year.

Last year, the New York City area saw one of its mildest winters in history. While the National Weather Service forecasts a warmer than average winter across the region this year, the city’s schools have already experienced other major weather-related disruptions.

In June, wildfire smoke drifting into the city from Canada impacted schools, with city officials first canceling all outdoor activities before turning to remote learning.

A torrential downpour in September brought more than 5 inches of rain to the city’s schools, flooding 150 school buildings and complicating commutes for thousands of students and schools staff. The city did not cancel in-person learning during the storm — a decision that sparked criticism from some parents and educators.

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

Chicago Public Schools graduation rates hit record high, data show

2023-10-31T19:01:51+00:00

A greater share of Chicago Public Schools students graduated last school year than in 2022, reaching a new record, officials announced Tuesday.

The graduation rate of 84% — representing students who graduated in four years — was 1.1 percentage points higher than the graduation rate for the Class of 2022, when 82.9% of high school students graduated on time. The dropout rate for the Class of 2023 was slightly higher at 9.4% than it was for the Class of 2022, which saw 8.9% of students drop out between freshman year and graduation.

Chicago Public Schools’ five-year graduation rate for the Class of 2022 — which includes students who take extra time to finish their diploma either at a traditional or alternative school — was 85.6%, 1.6 percentage points higher than for the class of 2021 when it was 84%.

District officials announced the numbers with fanfare at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, with CPS CEO Pedro Martinez flanked by Mayor Brandon Johnson and joined virtually by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.

Martinez said the rising graduation rate was a sign that the district is continuing to recover from the pandemic, reminding the audience that the students in the Class of 2023 were freshmen as the pandemic started in 2020, followed by two school years of remote and hybrid learning.

“When you think about their last year, their senior year, was probably their most normal year, I want you to take these results and put them in that context,” Martinez said.

Cardona described the graduation rates as “promising signs for the future of education in Chicago.” He highlighted the district’s use of federal COVID relief dollars, which CPS has put toward several purposes, including covering teacher salaries and hiring more instructional staff.

The announcement came one day after Illinois state education officials released statewide data, including graduation rates that had also increased across Illinois. (The state and Chicago Public Schools calculate graduation rates differently, so Chalkbeat is unable to provide direct comparisons.)

Chicago’s graduation rate has steadily increased over time, hitting a record high in 2022 even as students have faced academic challenges connected to the pandemic. Tuesday’s announcement comes on the heels of another report that found a rising share of CPS students are enrolling in college.

Racial disparities among graduates still remain, though they are narrowing. Graduation rates increased for Black, Hispanic and Asian American students, while dropping slightly for white students — by .4 percentage points — compared to the Class of 2022. Rates also dropped for multiracial students by 5.7 percentage points.

Nearly 75% of Black boys graduated in four years, up from roughly 65% five years ago, according to district data.

Despite higher graduation rates, SAT scores dipped for the Class of 2023, to an average composite score of 914. The average score for the Class of 2022 was 927, according to district data. Separately, the district also saw slightly fewer ninth graders — 88.7% — who were on track to graduate by 2026. That’s compared to 88.8% of the class that’s one year older than them.

As the pandemic set in, the district relaxed some grading policies, as did other school systems across the nation — raising questions about how such policies may have contributed to CPS’s rising graduation rates. Martinez argued that an increase in students completing college-level credits was a sign students were held to a high standard. Just under half of the Class of 2023 earned early college credits, a 5% increase from 2022, according to the district.

One of those students is Zaid Orduño, who said at Tuesday’s press conference that he took college-level courses at Daley College during his time at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, through the district’s Early College Program. His classes at Daley included English, math, sociology, and psychology, and he ultimately earned an associate’s degree alongside his high school diploma.

Taking those classes, he said, inspired him to pass up his original plan of joining his family’s construction business and instead pursue a civil engineering degree at Illinois Tech, he said.

A wall at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts is dedicated to remembering a hunger strike held in 2015 to demand for the reopening of Dyett, which was closed at the time.

Dyett, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side, saw its graduation rate tick up by more than 3 percentage points, to 86%. Johnson noted how far the school had come since he and other community members participated in a highly publicized hunger strike in 2015 to demand that Dyett, then shuttered, reopen. He also recognized fellow hunger striker Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who now represents the neighborhood nearby in City Council and serves as the chair of the Committee on Education and Child Development.

“A hunger striker can turn into a mayor and an alderman, and more importantly, a hunger strike can lead to the success that we are experiencing with our students right here at Dyett High School,” Johnson said.

He also used the moment to once again advocate for expanding the Sustainable Community Schools Initiative that Dyett and 19 other schools are a part of. The program partners schools with a nonprofit that provides wraparound services for students and families.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Rising share of Chicago Public Schools graduates are pursuing college, study finds

2023-10-12T18:25:42+00:00

A rising share of Chicago Public Schools students enrolled in college in recent years, and far more are earning degrees or certificates at two-year colleges.

That’s according to a study released Thursday by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the To & Through Project, which tracks college enrollment. Additionally, the study found that more Chicago students than ever are projected to pursue and complete college over the next decade.

The study’s findings run counter to national trends of sagging college enrollment during the pandemic; nationwide enrollment in two- and four-year colleges fell by .6% from 2021 to 2022, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Many young people across the nation are questioning whether higher education is worth the cost, said Jenny Nagaoka, one of the study’s authors and deputy director of the Consortium on School Research.

Higher education is “tremendously expensive, student debt is a huge issue [and] ultimately for a lot of students they’re unclear if the payoffs will be there,” Nagaoka said. “But CPS students are still going to college. They’re still seeing there’s value in it.”

Research shows that a college education can lead to better salary-earning potential, provide better access to high-quality housing, and contribute to better overall health, according to a review of literature by Healthy People 2030, a federal government-led project that tracks health data.

“We are hearing so much discouraging news about achievement in our schools right now, and this is not to say that’s not real, but I think it’s really important to note that at the same time, we’re actually also seeing increases in attainment,” Nagaoka said.

The study used a measure called the Post-Secondary Attainment Index, or PAI, to project college enrollment and completion based on current high school graduation and college enrollment and completion rates. Researchers calculated graduation rates slightly differently from the district, which is why they’ve come up with an 84-percent graduation rate for 2022 versus 82.9% reported by CPS. (The authors emphasized that the index is not meant to be a prediction; rather, it is a “starting place” to understand how to improve current patterns.)

This year the index is 30%, meaning that if CPS graduation and college enrollment and completion rates remained the same over the next decade, 30 out of 100 current ninth graders would earn a college credential by the time they are 25, researchers project. That is a 2.4 percentage point increase over last year and the highest rate on record since researchers began calculating this index in 2013. At that time, the index was 23%.

This year’s ninth graders were in middle school when the pandemic shuttered school buildings.

Nagaoka said they’re “cautiously optimistic” that these trends won’t reverse in the future, since this year’s record-setting data reflects students who were in high school and college during the pandemic.

But the study also found significant racial disparities within the data. For example, 66% percent of Asian American women would earn a college credential over the next decade according to the PAI, but just 13.6% of Black men would do the same.

During an event Thursday announcing the study’s findings, CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova acknowledged that the district has more to do to close racial disparities.

“With these groups, especially at the high school level, we’ve learned that one of the most impactful ways we can provide support is by establishing partnerships that will provide mentorship and guidance to the students throughout their high school experience,” she said.

The researchers also studied college enrollment data from 2022 and college completion data from 2021, based on data that was available. Some highlights included:

60.8% of CPS students who graduated in 2022 immediately enrolled in two-year or four-year colleges, 1.5 percentage points higher than the class of 2021.
There are stark racial disparities in who pursued college upon graduation in 2022. For example, nearly 80% of white women immediately enrolled in college upon graduation, while just 45% of Black male students did the same.
Just over 53% of English learners immediately pursued college after graduating last year, compared with 68% of former English learners.
For the class of 2015, nearly 56% of students who immediately enrolled in a four-year college and roughly one-third of students who immediately enrolled in a two-year college eventually earned a bachelor’s or associate degree, or earned a certificate by 2021.
For those who did not immediately enroll in college in 2015, roughly 3% earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. Another 5% completed an associate degree or certificate. While those rates are on the rise, they are 1.7 percentage points smaller than similar completion rates for the class of 2009.
The percentage of students who earned some sort of college credential after enrolling in four-year schools dipped by .6% between the graduating classes of 2014 and 2015.

Chkoumbova attributed the gains to various efforts across district schools to keep students interested in school and prepared for the future, including more career and technical education and dual-credit programs. She also pointed to the district’s work on how it disciplines students. Rather than suspending students, schools are using restorative practices to keep them connected and in class.

A district spokesperson pointed to a host of other programs, such as a new pilot initiative that aims to re-engage young people who are no longer in school or working. The spokesperson also pointed to efforts to get students interested in college and staying there. That includes the Direct Admissions Initiative, which tells seniors whether they can get into a select list of colleges, and another program that provides students with support and mentorship in the two years after they graduate from high school.

Nagaoka also highlighted the increase of 5.6 percentage points in the two-year college completion rate for class of 2015 graduates, the largest increase by far over at least the past six years.

That increase, researchers and Chkoumbova noted, coincides with the onset of Chicago’s STAR Scholarship, which former Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced in the fall of 2014 and offers free tuition to City Colleges for any CPS student with at least a 3.0 grade point average by high school graduation.

Chicago’s college enrollment rates beat national figures for high-poverty schools by about 11 percentage points, researchers found. Nagaoka attributed this in part to efforts by counselors, nonprofits, and others who work in schools to ensure students know about their college options.

More specifically, CPS requires students to create a post-secondary plan, or “evidence of a plan for life beyond high school,” in order to graduate from high school. That requirement forces students to have a conversation about what’s next, she said.

Ninety-seven percent of seniors in the class of 2022 submitted a post-secondary plan, a district spokesperson said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

New York wants to revamp how schools are evaluated. Here’s what could change for now.

2023-06-22T16:45:25+00:00

How does the state determine whether schools are doing well or if they are struggling and need extra support?

Before the pandemic, state officials relied on standardized tests and high school Regents exams to figure out how well students were doing, along with other factors, such as graduation rates. But the public health crisis paused state testing and affected school performance metrics in other ways.

Now, education department officials are seeking a new, temporary evaluation system for the next two school years, with the hopes of creating something more permanent for the 2025-26 school year.

If a school is found to be struggling, it is required to develop an improvement plan that must be approved by local and state officials. Schools that don’t make progress for five years could face state takeover or closure — but it’s a route that state officials rarely took even before developing the current accountability system, which is meant to be less punitive for schools.

In the short term, over the next two years, state officials want to exclude certain science and social studies exams, as well as measures for student growth and college and career readiness, when deciding which schools need improvement. These changes are necessary, officials say, because schools are still missing a trove of data, such as enough student participation in state tests, because of the pandemic.

Already, the conversation is sparking some controversy. Some groups focused on education reform believe the move represents a step backward just as schools need more help as they recover from the pandemic. Other observers believe the state’s proposed plan is reasonable.

Ultimately, the federal government must sign off on these proposed changes, since the state’s accountability system is required by federal law and is written into New York’s federally required Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, plan.

“They’re doing a decent job of balancing what’s of interest in the state and the federal ESSA requirements, and incorporating all the instability and uncertainty that came with the slowdown of testing during the pandemic,” said Aaron Pallas, a professor at Teachers College and an expert in testing.

But Education-Trust New York, an advocacy organization focused on equity issues, worried that several of the proposed changes could mean masking “bright spots and disparities,” according to their written public feedback to the state.

“I think these next two school years are incredibly important for kids coming out of the pandemic,” said Jeff Smink, the group’s deputy director, in an interview with Chalkbeat. “We have to both give them all the support they need but also hold them to high standards, and I just don’t feel like we’re doing that right now.”

What metrics would still be used?

Under the state’s proposal, schools will still be measured on English language proficiency (based on a state language exam for English learners), graduation rates, how well students are doing in core subjects based on Regents and state test scores, and chronic absenteeism. In New York City, chronic absenteeism has been a pressing issue, with 41% of students last school year absent for at least 10 school days.

What do state officials want to ditch (for now)?

The state wants to put a pause on measuring academic progress based on certain goals for student scores on state English and math tests.

State officials say they want to update these goals — first set in the 2017-18 school year — before they use them to determine whether schools are struggling.

The state’s proposed plan would also pause the use of “Measures of Interim Progress,” which more broadly measures whether schools are meeting goals for academics and other things, like their graduation rates.

For elementary and middle schools, officials want to pause how they’ve been measuring student growth, largely because of the lack of testing data. Typically, they calculated student growth using three years of testing data, but the pandemic caused big disruptions: For example, just one in five New York City children took state exams in the 2020-21 school year, when most children chose to learn from home.

For high schools, officials won’t consider college, career, and civic readiness metrics, which include advanced coursework or extra credentials in specialized jobs-based courses. That’s because the pandemic may have hampered students’ access to some of these programs or courses, officials said. They also worried that the pandemic’s impact on learning may have caused students to perform worse academically than they otherwise would have, such as on AP exams.

What will the state do with data, even if it’s not being used to evaluate schools?

State officials still plan to provide all of this data to schools for “informational purposes only” for the next two school years, they said.

Why do state officials want to exclude elementary school science exams and high school social studies assessments?

Science tests would be excluded because the state has changed who must take those exams. Traditionally, students in fourth and eighth grades take the state science test. However, only eighth graders took the test this school year, as the state prepares to offer the exam next year to fifth graders instead of fourth graders. That means they won’t be able to compare results equitably across elementary and middle schools that have different grade configurations.

Fifth graders will take the exam next spring. Asked why those scores won’t be taken into account for the 2024-25 school year, a spokesperson said that it allows districts to have “consistency and predictability” for now, as they attempt to rebuild the accountability system.

While calling it a “logical” move, Ed-Trust argued that excluding science tests “undermines the importance of science education” and worried schools will have less reason to focus on it. The organization suggested that the state should instead work with local districts to “ensure a smooth transition” to the new science assessments without entirely removing it as one way to measure student performance.

On the high school level, officials want to pause using social studies tests because of multiple exam cancellations in recent years. The state looks at cohorts of students, such as the graduating class of 2023, when considering how they performed on these tests, namely the Regents exams for Global History and Geography and U.S. History and Government.

But students who will graduate this year couldn’t take Regents exams in 2021, when they were in 10th grade, because of the pandemic. U.S. History and Government exams were also canceled last year, when these students were juniors, in the wake of a mass shooting in Buffalo, with the state education department claiming there was material on the exam that could “compound student trauma.”

State officials have emphasized that this plan “in no way diminishes” the importance of science or social studies instruction.

How will schools be labeled if they need support?

The lowest performing schools are known as schools in need of Comprehensive Support and Improvement, or CSI. But the state won’t list new CSI schools until the 2025-26 school year because they identified a group of such schools this year under a tweaked system, and that process only happens every three years, officials said.

A total of 139 New York City schools were identified this year as in need of some level of improvement, with 83% of them listed as CSI schools, according to state data.

However, New York will identify schools for Targeted Support and Intervention, or TSI, next year, which must happen annually per federal law. Those are schools that aren’t meeting goals set for specific student groups, such as by race, economic status, and those with disabilities.

In one recent — and perhaps confusing — change, schools that are meeting or exceeding their goals are no longer called “Schools in Good Standing” and instead are now labeled by the state as schools identified for Local Support and Improvement, or LSI.

What will happen for the 2025-26 school year?

State officials plan to revamp the accountability system for the 2025-26 school year after collecting feedback from the public. The new plan will also incorporate any changes to the state’s graduation requirements, which could come as soon as the end of this year. The education department is rethinking the role of Regents exams in graduation, among other considerations.

Pallas said that the plan for the 2025-26 school year and beyond would still have to meet federal ESSA requirements and earn the buy-in of school district leaders — meaning that it likely won’t be “a dramatic break from the past.”

“It’s gotta be something that feels progressive but also comfortable,” Pallas said.

Thomas Wilburn contributed.

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

NYC teachers union and Adams administration reach tentative deal on 5-year contract

2023-06-13T20:12:43+00:00

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New York City reached a deal with the teachers union for a five-year contract that includes annual raises, expands opportunities for virtual learning, and allows some remote work for certain employees, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.

The tentative deal for the United Federation of Teachers’ 115,000 full-time and 5,000 part-time education department employees includes 3% wage increases for the first three years, followed by a 3.25% increase in the fourth year, and 3.5% in the fifth year. The full contract would cost the city $6.4 billion, city officials said.

Starting salary for new teachers will jump from $61,070 to $72,349 by the end of the contract. In five years, the most experienced teachers will earn $151,271. The deal also proposes to cut in half the amount of time it takes teachers to reach a $100,000 salary — from 15 to eight years.

It also includes annual retention bonuses that will grow to $1,000 in 2026, for as long as an employee is an education department employee, and will be built into the system going forward. It’s the first time the union has negotiated such a payment, said Michael Mulgrew, president of the teachers union, during a press conference announcing the deal.

“We’re saying to all of our titles and every member, whether you’re in the first year or your 25th year, New York City is saying that we appreciate you, we recognize the challenges that you take on every day and you will receive $1,000 every [year] for that,” Mulgrew said. [Mulgrew initially misspoke, and his statement has been clarified.]

The retention bonus is “a good strategy” for keeping teachers, said Melissa Arnold Lyon, assistant professor of politics and policy at the University of Albany, who has been following the UFT’s contract negotiations. Teacher turnover rates in New York City and elsewhere hit an unusual high after last school year, potentially exacerbated by the stresses of the pandemic.

“There are a lot of costs of trying to find and hire new teachers,” Lyon said. “If $1,000 helps you to keep a teacher, at least on the micro level, that’s worth it.”

The agreement is retroactive to Sept. 14, 2022, and runs through Nov. 28, 2027, city officials said. The wage increases follow the pattern of raises set by the February agreement with District Council 37, which includes cafeteria workers, parent coordinators, and crossing guards.

Many teachers expected that their union would follow suit and had expressed concerns given that the previous deals were not keeping pace with inflation, which has moderated somewhat in recent months but reached 6.5% last year. Teachers had complained that their responsibilities have only increased since the pandemic, as they continue to catch up students academically and socially from years of interrupted learning.

A virtual learning program to expand

The contract would expand a pilot remote learning project that allowed small schools to offer virtual courses — such as AP Chemistry — that they otherwise couldn’t because of staffing issues. This year, the program used federal funding to grow, reaching about 1,500 students across 58 schools, with 23 separate online courses outside traditional school hours.

Under the tentative deal, high schools, as well as schools that serve grades 6-12, could offer virtual courses after school and on the weekends starting in the next academic year, union officials said, though nothing would bar schools from creating tutoring programs, too. Those programs would be available to students who volunteer to participate, and would be staffed by volunteer teachers. A quarter of high schools would be allowed to participate next year, growing to all high schools by the 2027-28 school year. High schools must apply to participate, education officials said.

Courses might be offered at individual schools or through the central education department, and high schools must apply to participate, education officials said. Part-time remote teachers can apply to be part of their school-based remote program and work before or after the school day; there will also be full-time, centrally hired teachers for the other program.

Programs could vary, Gendar said. For example, a school could offer evening courses, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., for students who are missing classes because they’re working day jobs, she said.

Schools could offer non-traditional schedules for students and teachers who want them. If a teacher volunteers to work a virtual program in addition to their regular work day, they will be paid overtime, Gendar said.

During a press conference, schools Chancellor David Banks said the virtual learning agreement gives students more flexibility, noting that some benefited from remote learning during the pandemic.

“Students who were at risk of dropping out were able to continue their coursework on a schedule that works best for them,” Banks said of remote learning during the start of the pandemic. “This expands those types of opportunities across the entire system.”

The contract would also allow some employees, who don’t work directly in schools, to work remotely for up to two days a week. It was not immediately clear which employees that would include.

Another sticking point was over how teachers would get to spend an extra 155 minutes each week after school. The deal would allow them, as they did this year, to do professional development and parent outreach, and it added a new option for teachers to do other classroom work of their choice in that time.

Teachers have mixed feelings

The contract is not yet final. First, the union’s negotiating committee, composed of 500 members, along with its executive board and delegate assembly will decide whether to send the tentative deal to all union members for a vote. Union officials did not immediately provide dates for those votes.

Some teachers took to social media to criticize the deal, but pushing back against it could be an uphill battle. The union cannot easily pull off a work stoppage because a teachers strike would violate New York’s Taylor Law, which imposes significant financial penalties for public sector unions that strike.

Robert Effinger, a union chapter leader at the Bronx High School of Business, said the pay increases surpassed his expectations.

Although some educators hoped that the salary increases would exceed inflation, the union was hemmed in by the pattern set by unions that negotiated contracts earlier this year. But Effinger said he was glad to see the union negotiate a quicker path to higher pay, an issue he hopes will help retain more educators.

“One of the reasons people burn out in education is they feel like they’re doing a lot of labor that is not appropriately compensated,” he said. “Having an accelerated early track is better for keeping people in.”

Still, he said he’s eager to hear more details about other elements of the contract including increased teacher autonomy, a major part of the union’s campaign, which focused on burdensome paperwork requirements educators face.

The union plans to hold a virtual town hall for members on Thursday at 4 p.m.

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

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

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

NYC public schools go remote Friday due to pollution from wildfire smoke

2023-06-08T17:27:32+00:00

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New York City public school students will shift to remote learning on Friday, as wildfire smoke prompted a third straight day of disruption to school operations.

Most students — including those in preschool, elementary, and middle school — were already scheduled to be off for “Clerical Day.” But high school students, and children who attend schools that run from grades 6-12, were slated to attend school in person on Friday. Those students, about 290,000 total, will now shift to remote instruction, city officials said Thursday.

Educators may conduct their lessons remotely, but some staff members — including custodians and some food workers — will be required to report to their buildings.

Early childhood programs that contract with the city have the option of switching to remote instruction on Friday, according to education department officials. Charter schools make their own decisions about whether to switch to remote instruction.

The decision to pivot to remote learning was considerably less fraught than for a typical school day, since the city’s youngest students were not part of the calculation. Switching to remote instruction can create significant burdens for working families who may struggle to arrange child care at the last minute, but that is less of a concern with older students.

It is also likely that in-person attendance would have been low tomorrow since students were already off on Thursday due to a previously scheduled staff training day.

The wildfire smoke wafting from Canada has disrupted school operations since Wednesday, when city officials canceled all outdoor activities, including recess and field trips. Students were not scheduled to attend school on Thursday because it was a previously scheduled staff training day. The education department pivoted to deploy those teacher training programs virtually instead.

City officials stressed during a press conference on Friday that the intensity of wildfire smoke can be difficult to predict days in advance, but they suggested that conditions are likely to improve.

“There’s a chance for significant improvement by tomorrow morning and throughout the day tomorrow,” Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday morning.

New York City registered some of the worst air pollution on record Wednesday, raising questions from some observers about whether the city adequately prepared students and schools to contend with intense air pollution.

Local health officials continued to recommend staying indoors, including people who are more susceptible to air pollution such as children, the elderly, and those with existing health and breathing problems. People who must go outside should wear high-quality N95 or KN95 masks, officials said.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

COVID learning loss driven more by school and community factors than household ones, research finds

2023-05-12T21:05:00+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter to keep up with how public education is changing.

Just as COVID hit some communities much harder than others, schools across the U.S. suffered disparate academic losses in the wake of the pandemic.

But new research points to a surprising finding: Students within the same district seemed to experience similar academic setbacks, regardless of their background. In the average district, white and more affluent students lost about the same amount of ground in reading and math as Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income families.

To researchers, that suggests that factors at the school district and community level — like whether students received quality remote instruction and whether communities experienced a strict lockdown — were bigger causes of test score declines than what was going on in students’ homes.

“Where children lived during the pandemic mattered more to their academic progress than their family background, income, or internet speed,” a team of researchers wrote in a report released Thursday.

The report offers some insight into why school districts experienced a wide range of academic losses during the pandemic. Citing pre-pandemic evidence that learning loss can persist for years without major interventions beyond normal instruction, it also points to the need for more intensive academic recovery efforts in some places. Those findings come as many schools are under pressure to reach more students with extra help like tutoring, and school leaders are trying to figure out the best ways to spend the limited COVID relief funding they have left.

But the report doesn’t get much closer to providing an answer to a key question that has evaded researchers: Why did school districts that stayed remote for similar lengths of time experience very different academic losses?

Thomas Kane, a Harvard professor of education and economics who co-authored the study, says that’s likely because researchers haven’t found a way to reliably measure factors that may have had a big impact, such as the quality of instruction students received.

“It’s like the suspect that we couldn’t find and question,” he said.

The team included researchers from Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins universities, as well as the testing group NWEA. Together, they looked at data from 7,800 school districts in 40 states, focusing on reading and math scores from state and federal tests for students in third to eighth grades.

Then the team looked to build on earlier research released last fall that found academic losses were steeper in districts that served larger shares of Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income families, and in districts that stayed remote or offered a mix of in-person and virtual instruction for longer.

This time, the researchers looked at several more factors that they thought could have had an effect on student’s math and reading scores during the pandemic.

These included whether students had access to the internet and a device at home; school staffing levels; whether residents had trust in their local institutions, like schools; employment rates; COVID death rates; anxiety and depression rates; and the degree to which COVID caused social and economic disruptions in a community. (To identify those disruptions, the research team looked at how often people did activities such as shop for groceries, eat at a restaurant, or socialize with people outside their home, using a combination of cell phone, Google, and Facebook survey data.)

The team found that student test scores fell more, especially in math, in places where families saw their daily routines more significantly restricted — a finding that held true even in places where schools closed only for a short time. Math losses also were greater in counties that had higher death rates from COVID.

Meanwhile, learning losses associated with remote instruction were smaller in places that reported greater trust in their local institutions, perhaps because parents supported their local school district’s pandemic decision-making.

Math learning losses stemming from virtual learning were bigger in places where adults reported higher levels of anxiety and depression, and in communities that had higher employment rates. In those cases, researchers wrote, parents may not have been as able to support their kids when they were learning from home.

‘Extraordinary’ measures needed to help students recover academically

Still, the additional factors explain only a “little bit” of why academic losses varied so much in places that stayed remote longer, Kane said. And they don’t explain why high-poverty school districts that serve more students of color lost more academic ground when they stayed remote for longer.

That may be because researchers haven’t yet found a way to measure some of the most important factors. The team wasn’t able to look at community COVID hospitalization rates, for example. They also couldn’t take into account the quality of remote instruction students received, or what policies districts set for student attendance and engagement during remote learning.

Remote instruction varied widely, especially early in the pandemic. Some schools required students to attend classes on live video for several hours a day, while others gave students more independent work.

In some places, teachers received little training on how to teach students virtually. In other places, teachers had to juggle students who were both at home and in front of them — a setup that often left parents and students more dissatisfied with the instructional quality.

“In some schools remote instruction was a watered-down version of in-person instruction,” Kane said. “In other places, there was just much less of an expectation that classes would be covering the usual grade-level standards online. We just don’t have a direct measure of the quality of remote/hybrid instruction and the level of expectations.”

The researchers also found evidence that in the decade leading up to the pandemic, when districts saw big dips in test scores — perhaps because there was a strong flu season, or a weak teaching team that year — their students tended not to recover as they progressed through later grades.

That suggests, according to the researchers, that it will be difficult for students to recover from the pandemic unless their schools take “extraordinary” measures, like expanding summer school and tutoring many more students. Chalkbeat previously reported that in many of the nation’s largest districts, fewer than 1 in 10 students got any kind of tutoring earlier this school year.

“When there is a disruption, it’s not like they know how to hurry up,” Kane said. “They will proceed with their lesson plans and instruction. It’s easy to resume learning — it’s very hard to accelerate it.”

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

NYC officials pause school device tracking project

2023-04-07T11:00:00+00:00

New York City’s education department is hitting pause on a sprawling effort to count up electronic devices in all schools and central offices, officials confirmed this week.

The yearlong project, launched last June, had reached just half of city schools before it stopped on March 20. The effort involved 26 teams of five people each who were supposed to visit all district and charter schools and central offices to count up all kinds of technology. That included tablets, laptops, desktop computers, printers, and smartboards.

The novel effort — known as the Central Inventory Project — came after the city had purchased an estimated 725,000 devices over the course of multiple years for remote learning during the pandemic, costing about $360 million.

The ultimate goal of the project was to help schools conduct annual inventories on their own, officials said. But they halted the project last month because of feedback from schools and a decision to review the information they’ve collected so far, according to a department spokesperson. The spokesperson added that the project would not be done by the end of the school year, as originally planned.

She did not immediately share what sort of feedback they received from schools. In a recent newsletter to its members, the Council for Superintendents and Administrators, or CSA, wrote that they shared school leaders’ “negative experiences” from the project with the education department, and “ensured that principals would not be disciplined or penalized for missing devices.”

“Since the project was announced, we escalated school leaders’ concerns about the potential disruptions these visits might cause and shared our opinion that the time and money involved would be better spent elsewhere,” said Craig DiFalco, a spokesperson for the union.

Officials will review the data they’ve collected so far “before determining how and when the project may proceed,” the education department spokesperson said.

Educators who previously spoke with Chalkbeat praised the effort to find schools devices — a key concern of former City Comptroller Scott Stringer, who noted in multiple reports that the department failed to have a centralized tracking system for computer hardware. Many of the 725,000 devices purchased for remote learning during the pandemic have been difficult to account for or track down, as they are supposed to follow the student from school to school, those teachers said.

However, they also shared that the project had hiccups. For example, students forgot to bring their iPads or laptops into school on the day of the scheduled inventory visit, and those devices were then marked as missing. One teacher in Brooklyn said a team that visited his school failed to count up any of the printers in his room.

Both teachers also noted that leaving the inventory process to schools can be hard on staff, especially when there is no technology coordinator on site.

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

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.

NYC bought 725K devices for remote learning. Now they’re trying to count them — and all school tech.

2023-02-16T21:30:24+00:00

When the COVID pandemic started about three years ago, New York City scrambled to get hundreds of thousands of students connected to the internet, buying iPads and Chromebook laptops, so students could learn from home.

The education department struggled for months to get enough devices for students and continued to purchase more. City officials ultimately bought 550,000 internet-enabled iPads, as well as 175,000 Chromebook laptops, costing roughly $360 million, according to the education department.

Now the education department has set out to find and track all of its technology, including the devices purchased during the pandemic. Although schools keep a record of devices, city watchdogs have criticized the education department for having no centralized system. The “Central Inventory Project” will log all technology at schools and central offices, including other kinds of tablets and laptops, desktop computers, printers and smartboards, according to a department spokesperson.

The department’s inventory project — which began last June and is expected to be completed this summer — is large. Twenty-six teams of five people each plan to visit all district and charter schools, as well as all central offices. So far, they’ve covered 660 schools and offices in 519 buildings.

A spokesperson declined to share takeaways from their inquiry so far, saying that they’re still collecting data from the inventory sweeps.

City officials are hoping to tally up how many devices are located in schools and central offices, as well as how many of those they’ve assigned to students for use at both school and home, according to a spokesperson.

Officials said they’re attempting to follow city, state, and federal guidelines for tracking devices. But they also appear to be addressing an issue raised years ago by former Comptroller Scott Stringer, who noted in multiple reports that there was no centralized system for tracking computer hardware.

A 2017 audit, for example, found that the department was missing more than 1,800 computers, laptops, and tablets. (At the time, the education department disputed the comptroller’s methodology and rejected most of Stringer’s recommendations, including his call for a systemwide inventory count.)

And a 2021 audit found that the education department had logged iPads for 5,000 students who were not also marked as having received those devices.

Some educators, who praised the scope of the project, said it is highlighting how difficult it can be to account for school devices, including computers purchased during the pandemic.

Eighth grade social studies teacher Nate Stripp, who is also the technology coordinator at Brooklyn’s M.S. 50, said their inventory process was straightforward and happened over a two-day period last month, when 10 technicians came in to count devices. In preparation for the visit, education department officials asked the school to remind students to bring in any school-issued devices they had at home. Officials also provided an estimate of how many devices they believe the school should have in hand.

There were some hiccups. In a majority of cases where iPads were missing during the inventory process, students had forgotten to bring them to school, Stripp said. There were several cases where students didn’t know where their devices were.

Stripp has come across students who were supposed to bring their remote-learning iPad to M.S. 50 from their old elementary school but claimed that they no longer have it in their possession — leading to a complicated scramble to figure out where the device is.

“I have enough technological competence to be able to run my own internal spreadsheets,” Stripp said. “But to really keep track of devices, we need a person who, at least part of their job, is paid to keep track of and maintain the technology inventory in the building.”

Officials hope to use this project to improve the process for when schools do a required annual device inventory, which is supposed to happen each spring, a spokesperson said.

Stripp said the centralized process last month was the first time he had seen such an effort in his five years at M.S. 50.

Some schools may do a better job than others of tracking their inventory, said a teacher at a Brooklyn high school, who went through the inventory process in December. For example, his school had a technology coordinator who kept a detailed spreadsheet of all their computers – but since she left, no one has taken over her responsibilities.

“It’s something that’s needed,” said the teacher, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press. “There are definitely ways that things can go missing without accountability.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

After COVID paused Regents exams, graduation rates for NYC’s English language learners surged

2023-01-19T19:31:54+00:00

Arnulfo Toribio was ready to drop out of high school.

It was 2020, and Toribio felt exhausted from learning years’ worth of material while balancing school with a full-time restaurant job. Before immigrating to New York City a few years earlier, he had spent much of his childhood working on a Mexican farm to support his family after his father died, missing at least six years of formal schooling.

A guidance counselor persuaded him to stay on track for a diploma, and Toribio got an additional boost just months before graduation: In response to the pandemic, the state canceled New York’s Regents exams, five of which students are required to pass in order to graduate. Students would still need to pass their courses. Toribio, who hadn’t passed his English or Algebra Regents after a couple attempts, graduated later that year.

“I benefited from that policy,” Toribio explained in Spanish through a translator. “It honestly helped me graduate.”

Bucking national trends, graduation rates rose across the state in the 2020-21 school year. Even more surprising, the rate catapulted for the city’s English language learners — rising by 14 percentage points to 60%, the largest increase on record for those students and a greater rise than other student groups.

The graduation rate spike seemed counterintuitive given that low-income immigrant communities had been severely affected by the pandemic, and many English learners found it more difficult to learn remotely. (Educators also found it difficult to teach remotely.)

Data obtained by Chalkbeat suggests that the temporary policy change — first canceling the English Regents and then not requiring a passing score on it to graduate in 2020-21 — removed a hurdle for English language learners trying to earn their diplomas. More English learners graduated during that time period, far fewer of whom passed the English Regents exam.

State officials acknowledged the spike could have been connected to the temporary cancellation of the Regents exams, and specifically the English exam, but they couldn’t say to what extent.

The effects of that policy could become clearer soon, as the state prepares to release graduation rates from the 2021-22 school year, when Regents exams resumed. The data could help inform a commission tasked with recommending changes to the state’s graduation requirements in 2024, including whether the Regents exams should still be required for students to graduate.

More English language learners take advantage of the Regents cancellation

Students typically take the English Regents exam at some point between freshman and senior year — with some taking it multiple times in hopes of eventually passing so they can get their diplomas. (Some students can appeal their scores and still graduate.)

In the 2018-19 school year, nearly 3,000 English language learners graduated from city public schools within four years, and roughly 67% of them had passed their English Regents at some point. In comparison, nearly all students who graduated and were not learning English as a new language had passed their English exams.

By 2020-21, when the English Regents was optional, the number of English language learners who earned diplomas rose to nearly 4,900, while just 8% passed their exams. (Pass rates also fell for other students who graduated, as more of them earned diplomas. Still, more than three-quarters of non-English learners had passed the test.)

The data doesn’t prove that English Regents exams are the source of low graduation rates among English learners because other factors could have influenced the recent rise, multiple policy experts who reviewed the data said.

Still, there’s “pretty good evidence” that canceling the exams was “one of the things that caused kids to be able to graduate,” said Julie Sugarman, senior policy analyst for K-12 education who focuses on English learners at the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigration Integration Policy.

Sugarman also noted that counselors could have encouraged more students to graduate, or looser grading policies could have helped students. (In Toribio’s case, he said his teachers were also flexible with his assignment deadlines as he searched for a new job during the start of the pandemic.)

Still, the data shows strong signs that “students who disproportionately struggle with high stakes standardized tests are disproportionately impacted” when those exams are no longer required to graduate, Sarah Part, a senior policy analyst with Advocates For Children, which has been advocating to remove Regents as a graduation requirement, said in an email.

English language learners typically don’t graduate on time

Graduation rates for English learners have been historically low — 46% graduated on time in 2020 in New York City, compared with 79% of all students citywide. Advocates and policy experts have cited many reasons, including that newer immigrant students might juggle work with school and lack of enough support in classrooms as they’re still learning the language.

Those rates have steadily grown since 2016 by an average of roughly 4 percentage points annually. But the 14-point jump in the 2020-21 school year was an anomaly. It was so high, that for the first time in eight years, English learners no longer had the lowest four-year graduation rate among the city’s major student groups, surpassing children with disabilities.

Research has found little evidence that requiring high-stakes graduation exams improves student achievement, and doing so may actually increase dropout rates for struggling students. The English exams can be particularly hard on English learners, advocates and researchers said. Sugarman said she often hears from educators about students who have passed all of their classes, but can’t pass the English Regents exam.

Just 3% of the city’s English learners who graduated last year did so without using any exemptions from Regents exams, compared to 28% of non-English learners, according to an analysis from The Education Trust-New York.

That organization described their findings as a “signal that students may be underprepared for postsecondary opportunities.”

At the same time, the data is likely fodder for advocates who have called for the state to stop requiring the Regents exams to graduate.

“What are more meaningful measures that can still capture the student’s learning and still give them different possibilities in different ways, so that their ability to graduate doesn’t depend on one test they take on one day for a few hours out of the four years plus of their high school career?” said Juliet Eisenstein, senior staff attorney with Advocates For Children who sits on the state’s commission that is reviewing graduation requirements.

Juanmy Moscoso, an English learner who graduated in 2021, took the English Regents exam five times before passing it, finally succeeding his junior year of high school, three years after he first moved to the United States from the Dominican Republic. He was part of the minority of English learners who passed the exam prior to graduating in 2021.

He felt that his teachers had done all they could to prepare him, but it was tough to pass the exam while also juggling a challenging course load, including several Advanced Placement classes.

“The problem is me not knowing the language as I wanted,” Moscoso said.

Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, an associate professor of international education at NYU, who has studied English language learners, has raised the larger question of why officials expect newcomer English learners to graduate on time to begin with — an argument other policy researchers have also made.

Those students are acclimating to a new country, as well as a new language, and could benefit from extra support and more time instead of “getting them out as quickly as possible,” he said. He said that many newer immigrants don’t pursue college and wondered if that would be different if they received more support in school.

There are signs that English learners who get more time to learn the language perform well academically. The graduation rates for students who are former English learners typically outpace their peers.

Toribio, the student who graduated in 2020, went on to attend community college. But he stopped attending because he was struggling to pay for school, according to an advocate who has helped him in the past. He hopes to go back soon.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit high school pivots to online learning following heavy flood damage

2023-01-10T21:50:57+00:00

Damage caused by heavy flooding over the winter break is sending students at Detroit’s Southeastern High School back to online learning for now.

The damage prompted the Detroit Public Schools Community District to close the building, near Mack Avenue and St. Jean, while it works to repair broken pipes and waterlogged classrooms. In the meantime, the school will shift to daily online learning, beginning Thursday, according to district spokesperson Chrystal Wilson.

Students can pick up laptops from the school on Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare for the shift. Grab and Go meals will be provided on a weekly basis.

The damage will “require extensive repairs and restoration and will take the District nearly two months to complete,” Wilson said in a statement.

Online learning is expected to continue “until an alternative building is identified for in-person or hybrid learning,” according to the school’s website.

While most of the school’s classrooms were damaged, the gymnasium was not as badly affected, Wilson said. The school’s athletic programs are expected to continue under a modified schedule.

The repairs at Southeastern come ahead of a planned renovation of the century-old building as part of the district’s facility master plan. The project, which would add a new wing dedicated to manufacturing and career and technical center programs, was slated to begin this fall.

School board members approved a plan last May to commit $700 million to a series of construction projects across the city, including the development of new schools; renovations and restorations of deteriorating buildings, and upgrades to air conditioning systems across the district.

This is at least the second time this school year that a DPSCD school has had to close for a building related issue. In November, Cody High School closed for two days after a person allegedly broke in and stole copper piping, temporarily damaging the school’s heating system.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

This virtual learning program has ‘changed the game’ for NYC’s small high schools

2022-12-14T15:32:16+00:00

As a student two decades ago at Brooklyn Tech, the city’s largest high school, Fuad Chowdhury marveled at the seemingly endless selection of courses at his fingertips.

Years later, when Chowdhury became the assistant principal of Bronx Compass, a small public high school, he was disheartened that he could only offer his students a small fraction of that variety. Bronx Compass enrolls roughly 400 students, and, like small schools across the city, doesn’t have the budget or manpower to offer a wide range of classes.

“I love small schools, unfortunately the drawback is I cannot necessarily have a music teacher and an art teacher and a computer science teacher,” Chowdhury said. “I’ve always felt it painful when I can’t offer a course that I know I have some students interested in, but not enough to rationalize a full course.”

So when Chowdhury heard about a new education department program that could expand his school’s course selection, he leapt at the chance.

Bronx Compass is now one of nearly 60 schools across the city participating in a fast-growing initiative that brings virtual courses to small schools without the bandwidth to run them in person.

The program, which launched as a small pilot in 2018, allows students to take online courses taught by public school teachers in other parts of the city from the comfort of their own school buildings and with supervision from an on-site staff member.

The initiative leapt in size this year with an infusion of federal relief funding, and now reaches roughly 1,500 students across 58 schools, with 23 separate courses taught by a mix of fully virtual teachers and in-person teachers who lead online courses outside traditional school hours.

At Bronx Compass, there are more than 20 students this year enrolled in a mix of virtual AP Computer Science, AP Art History, and AP Statistics courses.

“My larger dream for how I want to use virtual learning in our school community … is saying that we can offer any course,” said Chowdhury. “That’s a powerful statement.”

Educators see the expansion of virtual learning classes as an equity issue. The city’s smallest high schools are disproportionately concentrated in poor neighborhoods with higher shares of Black and Latino students, according to education department data.

“When I think about scaling this up, I think it all goes back to giving kids a voice in what they get to take, and breaking barriers that prevent an equity of access to coursework and learning,” Chowdhury said. “I think this could … I don’t want to say to break down those barriers, but at least to move them out, make them more malleable.”

NYC’s small schools are getting smaller

For decades, New York City has sustained hundreds of small schools, following a push by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg to break down dozens of troubled larger high schools into smaller ones.

The tiny school trend has accelerated in recent years as the city’s public school enrollment began falling before the pandemic and cratered over the past three years.

As of last year, the city had 201 schools with fewer than 200 students, and 638 with under 400 kids. Fifteen years ago, in 2007, there were 99 schools with less than 200 students and 420 with fewer than 400 kids, according to education department numbers.

At the high school level, where course variety is most important, there are 210 schools with fewer than 400 students, and 111 with more than 600. And the tiny schools aren’t evenly distributed: They’re clustered in the South Bronx, Upper and Lower Manhattan, and Central Brooklyn, according to the education department.

Many educators and students say they appreciate the tight-knit communities that form in small schools, and research points to some benefits, but the tradeoffs are clear.

“It was really painful to see how difficult it is for small schools to be equitable and offer things that some of the big schools can offer, just because their hands are pretty much tied,” said Jeffrey Ellis-Lee, a teacher at Maxine Greene High School for Imaginative Inquiry in Manhattan, which enrolled just 115 students last year.

Small schools have long looked for ways to pool extracurricular resources like sports teams, and some in shared buildings have experimented with combining academic courses with co-located schools, but that “only goes as far as what you have in the building,” Chowdhury said.

The virtual classes program started as a pilot in 2018 to try to change that.

Brian Nagy teaches a virtual class. The program leapt in size this year with an infusion of federal relief money.

The pandemic sharply accelerated the program’s growth — exposing the entire city to online learning in one fell swoop while accelerating the enrollment losses that squeeze small schools hardest.

The education department invested $2 million in federal relief dollars this year to fund a major scale-up in the initiative. The funding for the virtual teachers comes out of a central pot and is not deducted from schools’ budgets.

“The number of schools has gone up by leaps and bounds,” said Brian Nagy, a full-time virtual teacher who’s been in the program since 2019. “That was really the whole point: for us to be able to kind of spread the wealth.”

New initiative improves on pandemic remote learning

One of the biggest obstacles to generating interest in the new program was convincing students and teachers that this version of virtual learning would be more successful than the one they encountered during the pandemic.

Once teachers and students signed up, it didn’t take long to notice the differences.

“Pretty quickly I was like, wow this is very different,” said Ellis-Lee, who is teaching AP US History and AP Human Geography virtually this year. “The kids are in a classroom in their school, they’re not sitting in their bed. There’s none of that trauma that we had to go through, thank God. And they also have a live, certified teacher that they already know in the room with them.”

The partnership between the on-site and virtual teachers is a key ingredient, often amounting to a “co-teaching” relationship, even when the on-site teacher isn’t an expert on the specific content area of the course, educators say.

The on-site teacher can monitor behavior and engagement in real time, troubleshoot technology issues, check in on students having attendance or emotional challenges, and keep the virtual teacher looped in on the grading policies and scheduling constraints of the students’ home school.

“Having someone who can just go over and be like, ‘Hey, you doing okay?’ That’s really, really important,” said Nagy.

The other big thing that separates the virtual classes initiative from pandemic remote learning is the quality of the teaching and materials, students and staff said.

While schools experimented with different platforms during the pandemic, courses in the virtual learning initiative follow a stable format — with assignments posted on the platform iLearn, and a Zoom links for live instruction placed in the same place every class.

“Everything is organized,” said Taina Nieves, a junior at Bronx Compass taking virtual AP art history this year.

Teachers participating in the program are, by and large, veterans who have interest in and experience with remote teaching, said Shana Covel, the program’s director.

“I think my favorite part about it is the teacher,” said Alexis Frye, a 15-year-old 10th grader at Bronx Health Sciences High School who is taking Spanish 5 virtually this year. “She takes the time out to make sure everyone is on the same page.”

Alexis Frye, 15, is taking Spanish 5 virtually this year at Bronx Health Sciences High School.

That’s not to say there aren’t drawbacks. Tech issues still frustrate staff and students. Scheduling conflicts force some of the virtual courses outside of normal school hours, making it harder to sustain participation. And some teaching strategies — particularly involving group work — are harder to pull off virtually.

“I’ve had really great in-person debates,” said Ellis-Lee, but in the virtual setting “kids are still hesitant to turn on cameras and talk. Eventually we got around to having a really great debate … it just took a lot more support.”

Educators eye more growth

Virtual learning classes have already transformed the course catalog at Bronx Health Sciences High School. In the year-and-a-half that the school has been participating, administrators have been able to offer roughly 20 virtual courses, including AP Government and Politics, AP Environmental Science, and advanced Spanish and French courses. And 75 students are currently participating, according to Assistant Principal Brian Artzt.

Before the virtual courses, Bronx Health Sciences offered only two AP classes at a time.

“It changed the game of what we could even provide for our children,” Artzt said.

Supporting schools like Bronx Health Science takes a lot of behind-the-scenes logistical maneuvering from the DOE’s central office, including lining up the class periods of multiple schools across the city with different bell schedules and finding the teachers with the right qualifications.

“That’s my logic puzzle,” said Covel, the program’s director.

Educators hope those logistical challenges will become more manageable as the program grows.

“It’s like a business model: As it scales up you have more drivers for your trucks, you have more pallets to move your items, things are going to be easier,” said Chowdhury.

Just how big the program could get is still an open question.

Covel said, “We don’t have a quota or numbers attached to it. It’s very much just continuing to meet the needs of schools.”

Artzt, the Bronx Health Sciences assistant principal, thinks the program “should be across the city. It should be everywhere.”

Taina, the Bronx Compass student who’s taking AP Art History virtually this year, agrees.

“It opens that door to possibilities that a lot of kids may have thought were not possible,” she said. “If it was something to become bigger it would make a difference for a lot of other kids.”

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

Denver will close its pandemic-era online elementary school despite parent pleas

2022-12-13T04:42:24+00:00

Denver will shut down its pandemic-era online elementary school at the end of this school year, district officials announced at a school board meeting Monday.

Parents and teachers pleaded to save the school, describing the range of students who have benefitted, including neurodiverse students who find in-person classes overstimulating, students with high anxiety, those whose families are unhoused and highly mobile, and students who are immunocompromised or who live with someone who is.

“I will not be sending my children to in-person school,” parent Christin Finch told the school board. “The stakes could not be higher. The stakes are life and death.”

Denver Online Elementary, known as DOLE, opened in fall 2021 as an alternative to in-person learning. Several Colorado school districts set up similar programs.

Enrollment in online schools remains higher across the state than before the pandemic.

But DOLE is shrinking. Last year, the school enrolled about 550 students, said Cesar Cedillo, the district’s chief of schools. This year, DOLE has a little more than 200 students, he said. Principal Jesse Tang has said that 85% of DOLE students are students of color.

The reasons for shutting it down are twofold, Cedillo said: Young students learn best in person and COVID poses less of a health threat now that vaccines are available. A presentation notes that unlike last school year, when the omicron variant caused staffing shortages and school closures, there have been no school closures this year and fewer than five classroom closures.

Superintendent Alex Marrero said he’s sensitive to the reasons families choose online education, but he supports the rationale for closing the online elementary and “inviting students into the learning environment we know is proven to work best” — in-person learning.

Denver Public Schools will continue to have an online middle and high school, called Denver Online, that existed before the pandemic.

The district considers DOLE to be a program, not a school, Marrero said. That means its closure doesn’t require a vote of the school board, which recently rejected a plan to close several brick-and-mortar elementary schools with low enrollment.

But DOLE parents and teachers appealed to the school board anyway Monday, asking its seven members to intervene and keep DOLE open. They said the low-cost school — which doesn’t have to pay for transportation or lunchroom staff or custodians or copier paper — is blazing a trail and helping students who’ve struggled elsewhere find success.

“Our students are safe and nurtured,” said visual arts teacher Anderson Travis. “They can eat when they want to. They can bounce and fiddle without causing a distraction for other students. Our students can turn off their cameras when they feel anxiety and still be in the room learning.”

Parent Jeremy Bartel said he’s a cancer survivor whose immune system didn’t fully recover from chemotherapy. His two children attend DOLE.

“I’m here at great risk to talk to you tonight about myself and other immunocompromised people who send their children to this school,” Bartel said, wearing an N-95 mask in the gymnasium where the board hears public comment. “Please, please save our school.”

Parents and staff noted that DOLE students never have to endure lockdown drills, and parents don’t have to worry about school shooters. In October, Spanish-speaking parent Miriyan Jimenez told the board that she and her husband prefer that their daughter learn at home.

“She is our only daughter,” Jimenez said through an interpreter, “and having her go back to school makes us a little bit nervous.”

On Monday, school board members asked questions about how the district would support DOLE families and teachers in making the transition to new schools, but did not weigh in on the closure decision itself.

DOLE teachers also pointed to Denver’s declining enrollment, which is steepest at the elementary level. They said keeping DOLE open is a way to keep students in the district who otherwise might enroll in online options elsewhere.

“Where will 200-plus families go?” fifth-grade teacher Jenna Jennings asked the board. “My fear is that they will leave the district altogether.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Online learning, fieldwork IRL: NYC opens a new kind of hybrid high school

2022-11-18T16:55:11+00:00

Starting freshman year this September at Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School, River Wedding felt overwhelmed by its hulking campus with more than 3,500 other students.

The 15-year-old quickly sought advice from their middle school guidance counselor. Within days, they transferred to a city-run program called A School Without Walls, joining its inaugural class of 55 ninth graders.

“There was like nine people in the class,” said River, who uses they/them pronouns. “I was just like, ‘Whoof, I can breathe.’”

The new school uses a hybrid learning model, where students alternate between completing coursework at home and in traditional classrooms. But unlike the hybrid program that schools hastily adopted during the height of the pandemic — when students had more limited interactions with teachers during remote instruction and fewer opportunities to work with peers when in the classroom — the leaders behind School Without Walls hope to overhaul that approach.

Students said the new school offers more structure and individual guidance for remote instruction than they experienced during the pandemic. But the most significant change is the school’s focus on projects and fieldwork that are conducted away from students’ homes and classrooms — opportunities that the school’s leaders say would be more difficult to pull off within a traditional schedule.

“We’re using hybrid learning so that students have better access to resources in New York City and can engage in real-world learning,” said Veronica Coleman, the program’s principal. “For some students, going back to a building for a full day just didn’t feel like it was for them anymore.”

For now, students spend half of each day at home completing assignments and working with their teachers online. The rest of the day unfolds in person at an education department building in Downtown Brooklyn. As the program expands into 10th, 11th, and 12th grades over the next three years, students are expected to spend less time on traditional coursework.

Veronica Coleman, principal of School Without Walls, leads students to the subway after a trip to Prospect Park.

Upperclassmen will complete at least one “passion project” of their own design. Some students are already thinking about topics ranging from graffiti and street art to fashion design that escapes traditional gender norms. Those projects will also incorporate internships, college coursework, or other work-based learning opportunities to foster a “better understanding of what it is that they might want to do after high school,” Coleman said.

The school was under development before Chancellor David Banks took office, but it lines up with some of his early priorities, such as giving students a chance to explore career interests well before graduation. Banks has also said that he wants to build alternative programs that high school students find more engaging.

A last-minute addition to high school admissions lineup

It remains to be seen how popular the hybrid program will become. Though the school offered 100 seats this fall, it saw a little more than half of those spots filled.

The school had limited time to entice students to apply, Coleman said, as the city announced that applications for the program had opened just before the high school admissions deadline. The program also initially recruited students alongside a separate fully virtual program, also called “School Without Walls,” leading to some confusion among roughly 15 students who later withdrew. (The city plans to change the name of the fully virtual program.)

Several students who enrolled said they were enjoying the program so far and appreciated the program’s unusual structure. One student, for example, said the ability to work from home for half the day enabled him to help care for his grandmother.

Derrick Newell said the school’s hybrid schedule allowed him to help take care of his grandmother.

Another student, Lena Gestel, said she was initially skeptical of School Without Walls, but soon discovered the hybrid model allowed her to take dance classes that would have conflicted with the traditional school day.

“It’s way better for my schedule,” said 14-year-old Gestel. Plus, she’s been able to get one-on-one help from her teachers if she’s struggling to complete assignments.

One of the school’s biggest draws, though, is the chance to get out of the traditional classroom and explore the city, especially after many students spent long stretches of the pandemic confined to their homes.

Students have already taken several off-campus excursions including visits to parks near the school’s Downtown Brooklyn headquarters. They conducted “empathy interviews” to learn how people are using the public spaces and how they could be improved. Thanks to a partnership with the park’s department, students will have the chance to directly pitch their ideas to the agency, Coleman said.

On a recent Wednesday, a trip focused on environmental science sent students to Prospect Park to learn about the local ecosystem. During an hour and a half hike, they learned about local vegetation and also got some exercise — their Downtown Brooklyn building doesn’t have a gym for traditional physical education classes.

Students at School Without Walls dug up crayfish in Prospect Park during an environmental science lesson.

Guided by parks department and school staff, the students snapped on blue rubber gloves and plunged nets into a creek, unearthing leaves, mud, and crayfish. Later, they conducted water quality tests for pH, temperature, nitrate, and dissolved oxygen. They tested hypotheses about whether the water was healthy enough to sustain aquatic life.

“We’re just used to like buildings and stuff,” said 14-year-old Faris Moataz, adding that he’s been happy to spend time in nature. “Just to like know that this is here — it’s also cool.”

Work at your own pace

The school was designed in collaboration with NYC Outward Bound, a nonprofit that supports a network of public schools that typically include intensive projects, outdoor education, and an advisory program called “Crew” where students bond with each other and a faculty advisor over multiple years. School Without Walls received funding from the XQ Institute, a deep-pocketed organization that finances groups that are trying to rethink the way high schools operate. A group of student interns also provided input on the school’s design.

Moataz and other students said they appreciated the School Without Walls’ unconventional approach to academics. The program uses a “competency-based” method of instruction where educators ensure students have mastered specific skills before moving on. Students receive narrative evaluations rather than traditional letter grades.

“This school, like, really helps you so that you can actually understand what you’re doing,” said Moataz. “They’re not mandatory on the deadline. So like if you do [an assignment] a couple of days after, they’ll still take it.” He also likes being able to complete assignments from home, where he often finds it easier to concentrate.

Other students were more nervous about the school’s remote learning component, especially after their experiences with online instruction during the pandemic.

River Wedding transferred to School Without Walls after feeling overwhelmed by a much larger Brookyln high school.

River, the student who transferred from Murrow, said it was a big challenge to manage their time when they were learning remotely in middle school during the pandemic.

“I was like, no teachers, completely all on me, my grades were going down,” River said, adding that they missed long stretches of school. “I didn’t know what to do.”

But when they arrived at School Without Walls, River said the teachers offered plenty of help with remote coursework and weren’t “really controlling” or “very strict,” which helps motivate them to stick with their assignments.

“You don’t feel like you have to get it done immediately,” they said. “And you don’t feel stressed, and then push it away.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Schools across the U.S. have turned to Paper’s online tutoring. Some worry it’s falling short.

2022-11-17T16:45:15+00:00

Officials in Columbus City Schools were looking for a solution last year to some of the educational fallout of the pandemic — and they thought they found it in Paper, a popular virtual tutoring company that says it offers high-quality support for students at a lower price point.

The district spent $913,000 in COVID relief funds for Paper to provide its middle and high school students with access to 24/7, on-demand tutoring.

But Columbus quietly cut ties with the company in September because too few students were using the tool. District records obtained by Chalkbeat show that less than 8% of students with access logged on last school year. Half of those students used it just once. In some schools, not a single student logged on.

“I’ve had personal experience with it with my student,” school board president Jennifer Adair said of her rising seventh grader at a June meeting. “It was frustrating, and annoying, and she didn’t want to use it again.”

School districts across the country have spent millions in COVID relief dollars to purchase services from virtual tutoring companies to try to plug pandemic learning gaps. Paper, an eight-year-old company based in Montreal, has emerged as one of the most popular players in the market. It holds multi-million dollar contracts with some of the nation’s largest school districts and has splashy billboards in cities like Tampa and Chicago.

But educators and officials in districts that were among the first to contract with Paper say its text-based tutoring service often frustrates the students who need the most help, isn’t easily used by the youngest students, and can go unused altogether.

Philip Cutler, the co-founder and CEO of Paper, says the company has made several changes to respond to student and district feedback, with more in the works. Paper is piloting a voice notes feature aimed at helping younger children and English learners more easily use the platform. And the company has taken several steps to try to boost usage.

At a time when many students need academic help, Cutler says his company has proven it can deliver that on a large scale.

“It would be fantastic if we could have a tutor who sits next to a student for eight hours a day while they’re in class and helps re-explain everything to them,” Cutler said in a November interview. “Are we able to do that for 60 million students? I don’t think so. We need to make sure that there is something that actually can be applied to millions of students, that they can take advantage of.”

Still, schools’ reliance on programs like Paper worries observers like Allison Socol, a vice president at the education civil rights group The Education Trust who wrote a guide to spotting quality tutoring programs. Even with staffing challenges, she says, schools can do better.

“I am purposely not going to call it tutoring, because it’s not,” said Socol, of on-demand virtual help. “It doesn’t mean it’s not useful to some students. But is it useful at the scale that we need, and is it worth the amount of money that a lot of districts are spending? My gut says no, and a lot of the emerging data also says no.”

Why on-demand tutoring, and Paper, took off during pandemic

Paper traces its origins back to when Cutler saw firsthand how private tutoring can fuel academic inequities. While attending a teaching program at McGill University, Cutler ran a tutoring business that catered to children of wealthy families. “The other 90% needed the help the most but didn’t have the resources at home,” he said in an interview last year, “and no one was serving that side of the market.”

Cutler co-founded Paper in 2014, shortly after he graduated, and within four years the company had some district clients. But Paper really took off during the pandemic.

Schools, flush with COVID cash, wanted to offer tutoring to their students, but often struggled to staff and schedule those programs. Many districts couldn’t find enough teachers, who were often too exhausted and stressed to tutor for extra pay. And in a tight labor market, other adults were hard to recruit, too.

Paper offered a solution: It found and hired the tutors, and connected them to students whenever they needed help. Paper said its on-demand model could help schools reach struggling students who had to work or care for siblings after school, or who didn’t have a parent at home to help them with assignments.

“Paper aims to address the inequities facing all students, especially those from marginalized groups,” the company said.

Paper says it now works with 400 districts across the U.S. and Canada. Among its clients are four of the nation’s 10 largest districts: Los Angeles Unified, Clark County in Nevada, and Palm Beach and Hillsborough counties in Florida. Other big clients include the school districts in Boston; Prince William County, Virginia; and Jefferson County, Kentucky. Together, those contracts are worth $24 million and counting, records obtained by Chalkbeat show. (Los Angeles’ contract has yet to be finalized, Cutler said.)

Paper also holds statewide contracts worth $12 million total to provide virtual tutoring to students in grades 3-12 across Mississippi and to high schoolers in Tennessee.

Here’s how the service works: Students log on to Paper, type in a question, and get matched with a tutor. Students chat with the tutor over text message, and they can draw a problem on a virtual whiteboard. But the student can’t see or hear the tutor in real time, since there’s no live audio or video.

Even Paper’s marketing materials illustrate why that setup can be hard for some kids.

In transcripts of real tutoring sessions Paper provides to potential clients as “exemplary,” the company includes a session in which an elementary schooler needs help with basic math.

“I need help taking away,” the student types.

The tutor asks if the student knows why they’re having a hard time with subtraction.

“10000 - 0872,” the child responds. Drawing on the virtual whiteboard, the student reaches an incorrect answer: 2666.

“Can you explain what you did on the top with the 0’s?” the tutor asks. The student struggles to explain, starting with, “well I crossed it out.”

“Yeah! Do you know why you had to do that?” the tutor asked.

The student then left the session before getting guidance. But Paper noted they “left a glowing review for the tutor.”

Lucetta Holbert with her 14-year-old son, Zion Holbert, inside Berwick Alternative K-8 School in Columbus. Zion used Paper last year to get feedback on a writing assignment, but did not use it again.

Costs balloon when few students use Paper’s online tutoring

In Columbus, 14-year-old Zion Holbert used Paper last year to get feedback on a writing assignment comparing themes in “The Hunger Games” books to historical events. He found the site confusing at first, but eventually he figured out how to upload his work and he took some of the tutor’s editing suggestions.

His mother, Lucetta Holbert, appreciated how quickly the feedback came in. “It was really nice because I’m not a really good writer,” she said, “so that took the pressure off me to try to figure out how to do all this comparing and contrasting.”

But Zion never tried Paper again, though he was struggling with some math concepts, like fractions, that he learned when school was remote. When he wanted math help, he’d stay after school to review problems with his homeroom teacher or visit the library to work with a volunteer tutor.

His advice to other students? Paper can be helpful for English class, “if you’re stuck and you got work you want someone to read and you’re at home.” But if you have a more complicated question, seek out a teacher at school. “In person, you can just show them and they can help you,” Zion said.

One of Paper’s biggest selling points is that districts can offer unlimited virtual tutoring to many students at a fixed price. A Chalkbeat review of 13 recent district contracts show the cost per student can range from $21 to $183, though the median price was around $40. (Cutler says rates vary based on district size, contract length, and how much help the district needs to get started.)

But when students like Zion don’t return to the service or don’t use Paper at all, the true per-student cost is much higher.

Zion Holbert, 14, studies at Berwick Alternative K-8 School in Columbus.

Paper charged Columbus schools $38 per student for tutoring access, but district officials noted that the cost ballooned to $446 per student who actually used the service.

Santa Ana Unified in California paid Paper over $1.1 million last year to provide access to nearly 41,000 students. But just over 1,000 students logged on for tutoring or essay help from December 2021 to May, district records show, ultimately costing the district nearly $1,100 per child. (The district is no longer using Paper.)

Cutler says he believes Paper’s product is worth the cost when the number of help sessions roughly equals the number of students with access to the tool. Even by that generous standard — which can count the same student multiple times — the company often falls short.

In Hillsborough County, Florida, around 16,000 students used Paper from September 2021 to this September, or just under 14% of the middle and high schoolers with access. Those students logged around 47,000 tutoring sessions and essay reviews, district officials said — less than half of what Paper had projected. The usage was so off that the company ended up owing the school district over half a million dollars.

Usage looked similar in Palm Beach County, Florida. Some 104,000 middle and high schoolers had access to Paper, and they completed around 53,000 tutoring and essay review sessions last school year, district records show. That was within the projection in the district’s contract, but under what the company considers a good deal.

But school board members there had another concern: students from high-poverty schools used Paper less than their peers at more affluent schools.

Paper says usage rates improve when the company and district make concerted efforts to reach out to teachers, students, and families to tell them about the service. But others say the numbers reflect a problem baked into Paper’s opt-in model.

“It’s not necessarily the virtual part of it,” said Socol of The Education Trust. “Online homework help puts the responsibility on the student to say: ‘I don’t understand this individual question on my homework, let me reach out to a potentially random adult who I don’t have a relationship with.’”

Research released last month seems to back that up. In California’s Aspire charter school network, only 1 in 5 of the middle and high school students in the study used Paper in spring 2021. But higher-achieving students were almost twice as likely to use the platform as students who’d gotten at least one D or F the prior semester — the exact students the charter network had hired Paper to help.

More struggling students did try Paper when school leaders urged them and their parents to do so, but “take-up remained low,” the researchers wrote.

“If you expect them to bring their questions to the tutoring, that’s very difficult, too, because many students don’t quite know what they understand or don’t,” said Susanna Loeb, an education professor at Brown University who co-authored the study. “As a strategy for supporting students in need, it’s not a good strategy.”

Jillian Eichenauer, a middle school math teacher at an Aspire school just south of Los Angeles, has seen that in her classroom. Last year, she had her eighth graders redo problems they got wrong on their tests with Paper, but she didn’t turn to the tool if they were struggling with a concept, like writing an equation.

“I usually try to direct them to do that when it’s like a check for your answer, rather than get help,” Eichenauer said. “Some of them require re-teaching, which Paper is not very beneficial for.”

Paper’s shortcomings for young kids, English learners

Young students and students learning English as a new language have an especially hard time using Paper, educators say, though the company markets itself as being accessible to both. Paper employs tutors who can speak Spanish, French, and Mandarin, which has been a draw for many district clients.

But in several places, usage was especially low for those two groups of students. In Santa Ana Unified, a mostly Latino district where 40% of students are English learners, just four students used Paper in Spanish, data provided by the district for last school year show. No first or second graders logged on, and only two third graders did.

In Palm Beach County, only about 1% of tutoring and essay help sessions were conducted in a language other than English last school year, though 11% of students who had access were English learners.

Several districts, including Boston, Clark County, and Los Angeles, are paying Paper to use with children as young as 5, though experts in early literacy say kindergartners and first graders typically aren’t able to read and respond to a virtual tutor over text-based chat. Struggling readers in second grade are likely to have trouble, too.

Amanda Samples, the executive director of academic support and school improvement for DeSoto County schools in Mississippi, which uses Paper in grades 3-12 through the state’s initiative, says that when she reviews tutoring session logs, she can tell some younger students don’t realize the virtual tutor is a real person.

A student “might say: ‘I need help with vocabulary,’ and so the tutor will ask a question back, and then they may just not respond,” Samples said.

In Chicago’s west suburbs, middle school teacher Hannah Nolan-Spohn has used Paper to help English learners practice their conversation skills. But some have found the platform challenging without a voice option. The speech-to-text feature hasn’t helped much, either.

“The bot doesn’t always understand what it is that they’re trying to say,” Nolan-Spohn said, “and then they get frustrated.”

Paper officials have acknowledged the challenges English learners and younger students might face with the platform.

Paper makes changes as more schools seek online tutoring

Paper has acknowledged some of its shortcomings and says it’s working to improve.

“We realized for the younger students, in particular, they don’t necessarily have the ability to sit in a live chat,” Cutler told Chalkbeat earlier this summer, acknowledging that setup can be challenging for students with disabilities and English learners, too. “They’re just learning a language.”

As a fix, the company introduced a voice notes feature in Los Angeles’ schools this fall. It allows students to upload a recording of themselves speaking, but they still can’t have a live two-way conversation with a tutor. Cutler said it’s shown promise so far, and students who use the voice memos are more likely to return to the service. Paper intends to test it out in Boston before making it widely available next year.

Many virtual tutoring competitors now have live audio and video options, but Cutler says Paper doesn’t plan to change that part of its model because student focus groups haven’t shown a demand for that.

The company says it’s also stepped up efforts to make students and families aware of its services, running contests with prizes for schools that use Paper a lot and hiring staff who train teachers and demonstrate the tool for students.

Asked why students from high-poverty schools used Paper less, Cutler said that challenge is not unique to Paper. The company has worked with some districts, such as Clark County, to launch virtual tutoring in high-need schools first.

“What we need to do, and we are doing, is really focusing a lot of the messaging on: How do you support students who don’t really trust the system?” Cutler said this summer. “They are not the first ones to say, ‘Hey I think this is going to help me.’”

In the meantime, school districts are deciding how long they should give Paper to prove its worth as the deadline for spending federal COVID funds looms. Earlier this month, for example, the Hillsborough County school board renewed its contract for 10 months at a significantly reduced rate after raising concerns about low usage rates. District officials said they’d drop Paper if the plan to get more students logging on didn’t work.

“This is a lot of money,” Superintendent Addison Davis said, adding he wanted “to make certain that we’re getting the return on investment.”

How effective Paper is at helping students also remains an open question. The Aspire study found that when students and families got extra nudges to use Paper, and did, those students were 4 percentage points more likely to pass all their classes. Paper is involved in other ongoing research, but there’s not much else to go on for now.

Cutler maintains that Paper is “a critical piece to recovery.”

“I would 100% disagree with the fact that it’s not a solution that can address learning losses,” he said. “It absolutely is. And it’s being used that way by districts across the country.”

Leaders in districts like Mississippi’s Jefferson County schools are banking on it. Superintendent Adrian Hammitte jumped on the chance to use Paper through the state’s initiative.

“Coming from a school district with not many resources,” he said, “with it being free and offering 24/7 support, I was pretty much sold.”

Elsewhere in Mississippi, districts are using Paper to approximate “high-dosage tutoring” — a highly effective strategy in which students attend multiple tutoring sessions per week, during the school day. Cutler and the company’s marketing materials say Paper can be used in a high-dosage way, though its model is missing key components of that research-backed strategy, such as providing students with a consistent tutor.

Others say the kind of help Paper offers isn’t enough to catch up struggling students — and the fact that so many districts have turned to it raises questions about the country’s capacity to truly help the students who need it most.

Tony Solina, who oversees 16 Aspire schools in California, says it’s unrealistic to think Paper is going to “close the learning loss gap” the way most schools use it. His strategy to do that was to make sure the schools he manages had an after-school program staffed by educators who build relationships with students and their teachers.

“That’s, to me, the gold standard,” he said. “I don’t believe any online system is going to do better than or trump that.”

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

Struggling students hit harder, rebounding slower from COVID, research finds

2022-11-16T21:15:00+00:00

In the wake of alarming score drops on the nation’s report card, new research sheds more light on how academic gaps have widened during the pandemic.

Students who were already struggling were hit harder by the initial COVID disruptions and are now rebounding at a slower rate than their highest-achieving peers, according to findings from testing group NWEA.

News of the growing gap between the lowest-performing students and their peers isn’t novel — it’s been documented in past research and showed up in the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress exams released just last month. But the latest findings solidify a developing picture of schools struggling to support students who have fallen off track.

The findings underscore the need for more resources for educators, researchers say.

“The ceiling stayed pretty consistent to where it was before, but the floor has dropped substantially, and I worry that we’re starting to push teachers beyond their capacity to meet that diversity of needs,” said Karyn Lewis, an NWEA researcher. “So I think this has less implications for what teachers should be doing, but more for what we should be doing as supporters of teachers.”

The widening gap continues a pre-pandemic trend. In the time since, schools have closed and reopened, implemented new policies and learning methods, and dealt with other COVID-fueled issues — all the while some students have seen their families suffer personal or economic losses, while navigating new remote and hybrid learning environments.

NWEA researchers analyzed math and reading test scores from more than 8 million students between third and eighth grade, spanning 24,000 public schools. The research compared the highest- and lowest-achieving 10% of students who were tested during spring 2019 and spring 2022.

Researchers found the broadening gaps between high- and low-achieving students were driven by larger decreases in scores among students who were already struggling. Third grade reading scores, for example, fell by 0.3 points on NWEA’s MAP test for the top 10% of students between spring 2019 and spring 2022. For the bottom 10% of scorers, that drop was 5.2 points.

That trend held consistent across subjects and grades, with the exception of eighth grade math, where higher-achieving students saw larger declines. That exception was consistent with NAEP eighth grade math scores.

Researchers also tracked a group of high- and low-performing students over multiple years, comparing their test score improvements to a pre-pandemic sample. While both sets of students saw diminished gains in the 2020-21 school year — meaning they progressed slower than the pre-pandemic group — the impact was larger among the lowest-achieving students.

And in the 2021-22 school year, the highest-performing students tended to make greater strides than their pre-pandemic counterparts, while in most cases the lowest scorers improved slightly but still lagged behind pre-pandemic growth rates.

“It’s a pretty interesting finding,” said Martin West, a professor of education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. “It makes sense that all students would have suffered from the rapid and chaotic initial switch to remote instruction, but over time, families with more resources or school systems with stronger capacity may have found ways to help students catch up more successfully.”

Because the researchers followed a group of students over several years, Lewis said the findings likely represent “the best case scenario.”

“We’re missing out on students that were more mobile and switched districts or dropped out of school or missed testing for some reason,” she said. “So even though what we see here is pretty dramatic, it’s probably a rosier picture than what’s happening in reality.”

And the news isn’t all good for top performers, either. If pre-pandemic national norms are still used, for example, as benchmarks for gifted and talented programs, “You’re going to have fewer students meeting those cutoffs overall, but you’re going to have even fewer students of color meeting those cutoffs, given the pandemic has been uneven in its impact,” Lewis added.

Scott Marion, a testing expert and member of the board that oversees the NAEP tests, noted the pandemic has brought more attention to gaps that were already quite worrisome.

He pointed to recent NAEP results, where average eighth grade math scores dropped 8 points — the largest decline on record. The difference between the highest and lowest performers, however, remained around 100 points.

“It’s not like the gaps weren’t egregious before,” Marion said.

Hidden toll: Thousands of schools fail to count homeless students

2022-11-15T10:00:00+00:00

This article was produced in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity, The Seattle Times, Street Sense Media and WAMU/DCist.

For months, Beth Petersen paid acquaintances to take her son to school — money she sorely needed.

They’d lost their apartment, her son bouncing between relatives and friends while she hotel-hopped. As hard as she tried to keep the 13-year-old at his school, they finally had to switch districts.

Under federal law, Petersen’s son had a right to free transportation — and to remain in the school he attended at the time he lost permanent housing.

But no one told Petersen that.

“They should have been sending a bus for him. … He’s missed so much school I can’t believe it,” Petersen said. “And school is stability.”

Petersen was unaware of a federal law that would’ve allowed her son to remain in his district while they experienced houselessness.

A Center for Public Integrity analysis of district-level federal education data suggests roughly 300,000 students entitled to essential rights reserved for homeless students have slipped through the cracks, unidentified by the school districts mandated to help them.

Some 2,400 districts — from regions synonymous with economic hardship to big cities and prosperous suburbs — did not report having even one homeless student despite levels of financial need that make those figures improbable.

And many more districts are likely undercounting the number of homeless students they do identify. In nearly half of states, tallies of student homelessness bear no relationship with poverty, a sign of just how inconsistent the identification of kids with unstable housing can be.

The reasons include a federal law so little-known that people charged with implementing it often fail to follow the rules; nearly non-existent enforcement of the law by federal and state governments; and funding so meager that districts have little incentive to survey whether students have stable housing.

“It’s a largely invisible population,” said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on homeless education. “The national conversation on homelessness is focused on single adults who are very visible in large urban areas. It is not focused on children, youth and families. It is not focused on education.”

Losing a home can be a critical turning point in a child’s life. That’s why schools are required to provide extra support.

Nationwide, homeless students graduate at lower rates than average, blunting their opportunities for stable jobs and increasing the risk of continued housing insecurity in adulthood.

The gap is often stark: In 18 states, graduation rates for students who experienced homelessness lagged more than 20 percentage points behind the overall rate in both 2017 and 2018.

The academic cost is not equally shared. Black and Latino children experience homelessness at disproportionate rates, Public Integrity’s analysis showed. Nationally, American Indian or Alaska Native students were also over-represented, as were students with disabilities.

Until recently, it was not clear from federal records which students were hit hardest by housing instability. Data disclosed in U.S. Department of Education reports revealed nothing about the race or ethnicity of students recognized by their school districts as homeless.

That changed in the 2019-20 school year when the federal government for the first time made public the race and ethnicity breakdowns for individual school districts. The pattern that emerged is a story of the country’s sharp inequities, which put some families at far higher risk of homelessness than others.

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, first enacted in 1987 and expanded in 2001, requires that districts take specific actions to help unstably housed students complete school. Districts must waive enrollment requirements, such as immunization forms, that could keep kids out of the classroom. They must refer families to health care and housing services. And they must provide transportation so children can remain in the school they attended before they became homeless, even if they’re now outside the attendance boundaries.

Earl Edwards, an assistant professor at Boston College’s School of Education and Human Development, argues that McKinney-Vento was premised on an idea still pervasive in the policy debate on homelessness: Like a tornado that levels towns at random, housing misfortune has an equal chance of afflicting anyone, regardless of who they are.

In the 1980s, that rhetoric was a potent argument in favor of expanded federal support for homeless services. It was also wrong.

The McKinney-Vento Act started as an inadequate policy

The McKinney Act — later renamed — took shape at a time when the Reagan administration, if it acknowledged homeless people at all, regarded them as having chosen a life on urban skid rows, said Maria Foscarinis, who helped write the law.

Foscarinis, the founder of the National Homelessness Law Center, reframed homelessness as a broader structural problem impacting families, people of all races, even suburbanites. The outcome was a race-neutral solution, despite data at the time that went counter to that theory.

Foscarinis said the law’s architects knew it was inadequate and planned to follow it with homeless prevention programs and housing. But they faced stiff resistance. It would have been better to include race-conscious language tracking the demographics of homeless children, she added, but doing so could have jeopardized the entire effort.

“Had we done that, it would have torpedoed the whole thing, which would have hurt Black communities even more,” she said. “Then, we would have nothing at all.”

Figures now available down to the school district show the consequences of homelessness policy that doesn’t address race directly.

Nationally, Black students were 15% of public school enrollment but 27% of homeless students in 2019-20. In 36 states and Washington, D.C., the rate of homelessness among Black students was at least twice the rate of all other students that year.

Boston College’s Edwards said the disconnect lies between the reality of housing inequality and the policies intended to address it.

“If you don’t recognize that Black people, during the time when you were establishing the actual policy, were disproportionately experiencing homelessness” — and that housing discrimination, urban renewal, blockbusting and other systemic factors pushing Black people out of housing were key drivers — “then you make a policy, and the policy doesn’t have anything in place to prevent those things from persisting,” Edwards said.

And under-identification of homelessness could impact Black students more than peers of other races.

In interviews with Black students who experienced homelessness while enrolled in Los Angeles County public school districts, Edwards found that many distrusted school personnel, who underestimated their academic ability, sent them to the principal’s office for the smallest perceived slights, and threatened to call child protective services.

As a result, Edwards found, many students went unidentified under McKinney-Vento because they feared that sharing their situation would only make things worse. They paid for transit passes out of pocket. They were forced out of their home districts. They navigated college admissions alone. If they were lucky, they found mentors outside of the school system.

Those experiences aren’t an accident, Edwards argues, but the product of historical patterns. For example: “Calling child protective services would not be a severe threat to Black students if racial disparities within the institution itself were less pronounced.”

Beneath the race-neutral veneer of McKinney-Vento, American Indian or Alaska Native students and Latino students also experience housing instability at higher rates than their peers in the majority of states.

In Capistrano Unified, a 44,000-student school district in southern California, the rate of homelessness among Latino students was roughly 24% in recent school years compared to about 2% among the rest of the student body.

“It’s not anything that we’ve really done research on, so I wouldn’t even be able to speculate” as to why, said Stacy Yogi, executive director of state and federal programs for the district.

Across California, Latino students are 56% of public school enrollment but 74% of homeless students.

A 2020 report from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that Black and Latino students who experience homelessness in the state are more than one and a half times as likely to be suspended from school as their non-homeless peers. They also miss more school days and are less prepared for college.

Public Integrity’s analysis also found that students with disabilities have higher rates of homelessness than the rest of their peers in every state except Mississippi, suggesting that a significant share of students who already require additional support attend school uncertain of where they will sleep that night.

“They’re experiencing trauma, and trauma has a pretty significant impact,” said Darla Bardine, executive director of the National Network for Youth, a policy and advocacy group focused on youth homelessness. “You have to navigate an overly complicated system, and it’s this competition for limited resources where young people and children and families are just inherently disadvantaged.”

EJ Valez, who has limited vision and requires large-print materials for reading and braille instruction, was among them.

Valez experienced housing instability for most of his youth, bouncing between homes and schools in the Bronx and Reading, Pennsylvania.

“I’m surprised I made it out of school,” he said.

As a teenager, he said, he couch-surfed with friends and acquaintances after he became estranged from his family.

“Somehow I could retain information, but at no point in my childhood before full-on adulthood was there ever actual stability,” said Valez, now a student at Albright College in Pennsylvania and a member of the National Network for Youth’s National Youth Advisory Council. “No one cares about classes if we don’t know where we’re going to put our heads at night.”

That, he said, is why extra help from schools is so critical.

Hidden homelessness in America

It might seem like common sense to assume that where more children experience poverty, more will experience homelessness, too.

But that’s not what the data from school districts show. One of the most surprising patterns we found is that reported homelessness among students didn’t mirror poverty in 24 states.

The finding runs counter to a growing body of empirical evidence supporting the connection between poverty and housing instability. Children born below 50% of the poverty line had a higher probability of eviction than higher-income peers, lower-income households are more likely to experience forced mobility, and renters who are forced to move end up in higher-poverty neighborhoods than renters who move voluntarily.

“There should be a stronger relationship between homelessness and poverty,” said Jennifer Erb-Downward, director of housing stability programs and policy initiatives at the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions, “and the fact that there’s not supports that there’s under-identification taking place.”

Districts can tell teachers and staff to look for common signs of housing instability among students — fatigue, unmet health needs, marked changes in behavior. But those aren’t always apparent.

If they’re following the law, districts will survey families so they can self-identify as homeless. But some parents fear that acknowledging their housing struggles could prompt the government to take their kids away.

And then there’s the gulf between what people commonly think of as homeless and the more expansive definition Congress uses for students. Living in a shelter, on the streets, in a vehicle or in a motel paid for by the government or a charitable organization are included, but that’s not all.

More than 70% of children eligible for services were forced by economic need to move out of their homes — with or without their family — and in with relatives or friends, a practice that the U.S. Department of Education defines as “doubled up.”

Research on doubled-up students shows there’s good reason to provide them with help: They earned lower grades, for example, and were less likely to graduate on time.

In Riverside County, California, Beth Petersen’s son met the definition of doubled up for months, having lived temporarily with her sister and with friends.

Only Petersen didn’t know it at the time.

Eventually, the two found housing outside the Temecula Valley Unified School District her son had attended for years. He switched districts, keeping up with the schoolwork but struggling to make friends.

Then a friend of Petersen’s who works at a charter school told her that her son had the right to re-enroll in the Temecula Valley schools because the McKinney-Vento law allows students to stay in the same school they attended before becoming homeless.

In early September, Petersen moved with her son into a two-bedroom apartment — still outside the district boundaries — paid for by a homeless prevention organization and shared with another family. Under federal law, her son is considered homeless because they live in transitional housing.

Petersen re-enrolled her son in Temecula Valley Unified but problems persisted. She said she pleaded with the district for weeks, trying to secure bus rides for the teenager. The district never responded to her emails, she said. He ultimately missed a month of classes, Petersen estimated, because she could not afford to continue paying acquaintances to transport her son every day.

The California Department of Education intervened in late September to ensure her son received transportation.

“This has been a teachable moment for the district and there are protocols and … barriers that have been removed to ensure the law is met,” an employee at the state agency wrote Petersen in an email.

A statement provided by Temecula Valley Unified in response to detailed questions regarding the Petersens said the district “does everything in its power to support our McKinney-Vento families experiencing homelessness” and has “highly responsive site and district teams,” but declined to comment further.

Experts think students like Petersen’s son are among those most likely to go unidentified and unassisted because their families don’t realize they qualify for help and schools too often fail to fill the information gap.

Petersen’s son missed over a month of classes due to transportation issues with Temecula Valley Unified.

When that happens, “we’re not even including most of our kids who are experiencing homelessness in the definition of who’s homeless,” said Charlotte Kinzley, supervisor of homeless and highly mobile services for the Minneapolis Public Schools. “So we haven’t even named the problem.”

In Minneapolis, the reported graduation rate for homeless students is at least 26 percentage points below the rate for all students. The district introduced programs in the last few years to help schools find more students experiencing housing instability and connect them with assistance. Lesson plans for teachers help high school students understand if they qualify.

Across Minnesota, districts generally reported homeless rates that loosely mirrored trends in free- or reduced-price lunch eligibility, suggesting some consistency in identification.

“It’s not a matter of getting the right count or getting the numbers,” said Melissa Winship, a Minneapolis schools counselor who works with students experiencing homelessness. “It’s a matter of those students and families having those supports and resources that they deserve.”

Data on student homelessness is collected by districts and funneled to the federal government by states, which can choose to leave out any districts that did not report having any homeless students. Our data adds those excluded districts back. We assume they identified no homeless students, since they’re not in federal data.

Our analysis focused on non-charter districts in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years. In addition to comparing poverty and reported homelessness, we applied a common benchmark used by education researchers and some public education officials — that one of every 20 students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches experience homelessness under the federal definition.

In each school year we analyzed, more than 8,000 districts did not meet the one-in-20 guideline.

DeSoto County, Mississippi, for instance, identified fewer than 300 homeless students, according to state records Public Integrity reviewed. Its share of students eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches suggests the district has three times the number it reported.

That’s not the only reason to suspect an undercount. In 2018, local landlords filed more than 4,000 eviction cases, according to an estimate from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.

By comparison, Mississippi’s Vicksburg Warren School District identified about as many homeless students as DeSoto despite having less than half as many children eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches.

The DeSoto County schools did not respond to requests for comment.

It’s possible that some school districts genuinely have fewer homeless students than this benchmark predicts. But multiple researchers told us that they see the one-in-20 threshold as a conservative estimate.

J.J. Cutuli, a senior research scientist at Nemours Children’s Health System, said the analysis bolsters the anecdotal experiences of school district staff, shelter personnel, and people who’ve lived through periods of homelessness.

“You’re giving us a clue as to the magnitude of this problem. And that’s really the important part here,” he said.

The University of Michigan’s Erb-Downward said the reason numbers are critical is because “we, somehow, as a society, have agreed that it is OK for the level of poverty and instability that children experience, from a housing perspective, to exist.”

“If we don’t actively track that, and have a conversation about what the level [of homelessness] really is, I don’t think we’re being forced to actually look at that decision that we’ve made societally,” she said. “And we’re not really being forced to say, ‘Is this actually what makes sense? Is this actually what we want?’”

Why tracking homeless children in America is an ‘uphill battle’

The federal government, state education departments, and families have few options to hold districts accountable if they fail to properly identify or provide assistance for students experiencing homelessness.

The U.S. Department of Education delegates enforcement to states. States where school districts fail to follow the law are subject to increased monitoring, but the federal agency would not say how often that happens. A spokesman said only that the agency “engages in monitoring and compliance activities that can include investigating alleged non-compliance.”

Public Integrity reviewed dozens of lawsuits in which families and advocacy groups alleged that school districts denied students rights that are guaranteed under the federal McKinney-Vento law.

Families experiencing homelessness have sometimes prevailed in their standoffs with education agencies, winning reforms like agreements to train school personnel in the law and, in one case, a toll-free number for parents and children to contact with questions about their rights.

“There’s not really a ton of capacity for actually investigating and dealing with these complaints,” said Katie Meyer Scott, senior youth attorney at the National Homelessness Law Center. “We have a problem where there’s not necessarily an investment in enforcement at either the federal or state level.”

As an extreme last resort, the U.S. Department of Education can cut funding — a step officials are loath to take because that would ultimately harm the very students the agency wanted to help. The agency said it has never penalized a state in this manner.

A 2014 investigation by the Government Accountability Office found that eight of the 20 school districts its staff interviewed acknowledged they had problems identifying homeless students. The watchdog agency found that the U.S. Department of Education had “no plan to ensure adequate oversight of all states,” with similar gaps in state monitoring of school districts.

State audits in California, Washington, and New York have also made the case that many school districts fail to identify a significant number of students who qualify for the rights guaranteed under federal law. Advocacy groups and researchers, too, have surfaced examples.

In Michigan, state Department of Education guidelines call for an investigation if school districts identify fewer than 10% of low-income students as homeless. Erb-Downward found that all but a handful of Detroit schools fell below this threshold in the 2017-18 school year.

Public Integrity’s analysis points to similar problems. Detroit’s public school district, the largest district in the state, identified 255 fewer homeless students than the Kalamazoo Public Schools in 2018-19, despite having four times as many students and a much higher poverty rate.

Detroit school superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a statement that the district’s efforts to improve in recent years include adding full-time staff to its homeless student office, a residency questionnaire with its student enrollment form, referral systems, and public information about available services.

Homeless student numbers have tripled in the past several years, Vitti said. But, he added, “We are aware there is still an undercount.”

Detroit’s public school district, under Superintendent Vitti, have sought to improve its count of students experiencing homelessness.

A statewide review this year identified 120 Michigan school districts, roughly 20%, in need of additional monitoring, department spokesman Martin Ackley said. The state is asking those districts to provide evidence that they are in compliance with federal law.

The state expects to finish the reviews this winter and will provide technical support to districts struggling to meet federal requirements.

Districts in other parts of the country willing to explain likely undercounts offer a variety of reasons.

In the Chester-Upland School District outside of Philadelphia, interim homeless liaison Dana Bowser said many families consult district staff as a last resort when they can’t find a solution to their housing troubles on their own. Language barriers make some parents reluctant to come forward, she added.

Florida’s Broward County Public Schools described struggles to overcome limited funding, stigma, and fear of immigration services as “skyrocketing home prices and lack of regulation around rental fees have created an unfortunate climate in which more individuals and families are facing homelessness, including middle-class income families.”

And in the Yuma Union High School District along Arizona’s borders with both California and Mexico, where our benchmark predicted more than five times the number of homeless students than was reported in the 2019-20 school year, school officials said they do not report a child as homeless if they do not apply for and receive services under McKinney-Vento. The National Center for Homeless Education advises officials to count enrolled homeless children and youth even if they decline services available to them.

In Oklahoma, hundreds of districts report that no students experience homelessness. Tammy Smith, who oversees the state’s homeless student programs, hears a common refrain from school leaders when she asks why.

“They tell me, ‘We’re going to take care of all of our students, whether we identify them as homeless or not,’’’ Smith said. “I remind them it’s federal law, but it’s kind of [an] uphill battle.”

Leaving homeless children out of official records is a problem even if a district does manage to support them without properly counting them, said Amanda Peterson, the director of educational improvement and support at the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction.

“If we are not able to tell the story, we’re not able to show that there’s discrepancies in the graduation rate, then what ends up happening is that it’s easy for legislators, community members, others to just close their eyes to the issue and just say, ‘Well, if it’s not reported, it doesn’t exist, and therefore we don’t need to worry about it,’” she said. “There’s harm if we just sort of push it under the rug.”

Yuma Union High School District does not count students as homeless if their family doesn’t apply for services under McKinney-Vento.

‘Not enough money’ to support homeless students

Federal programs provide school districts little financial incentive to survey students’ housing situations more thoroughly. Money to serve these vulnerable children is limited and does not increase automatically as districts identify more of them, Public Integrity found.

Instead, the U.S. Department of Education awards funds to states using a formula that factors in poverty rates. States use their share to award competitive grants to districts.

Calling them paltry is an understatement.

The funding amounted to about $60 per identified homeless student nationwide before the pandemic. One state received less than $30 per student.

That’s a fraction of what school districts actually spend to support homeless students, according to a recent study by the Learning Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group. The four districts profiled by LPI spent between $128 and $556 per homeless student identified. In two of those districts, McKinney-Vento subgrants accounted for less than 14 cents on every dollar the district spent on homeless education programs.

And that’s the districts awarded federal grants. Most get nothing.

Until a temporary funding influx during the pandemic, only one in four districts nationwide received dedicated funding. Washington state, which got the lowest amount in the 2018 fiscal year at $29 per identified student, passed a law in 2016 to provide additional support and resources.

“I would argue that a state like Washington has better identification, but it’s not reflected in how the feds dole out the money from McKinney-Vento,” said Duffield of SchoolHouse Connection.

Even in states that receive hundreds of dollars per student, the money does not stretch far, experts said. And it’s definitely not enough to provide long-term assistance for students without stable housing.

One sign of its inadequacy: Many districts don’t even bother applying for the federal money. In Oklahoma, just 25 of the state’s 509 districts requested funds.

Smith, who oversees the state’s homeless student programs, urges districts to apply. She said superintendents tell her, “There’s not a monetary benefit for us to identify them. So that’s not where we’re spending our time.”

In 2021, the American Rescue Plan made $800 million available to states and districts to identify and support homeless students, some of whom became disconnected from schools after the COVID-19 closures of 2020. The historic funding influx was seven times the annual budget awarded to schools to support their homeless students in 2022, making federal funds available to districts that had not previously received money.

In Wayne County, Michigan, where Detroit is located, the additional funding was sorely needed, said Steven Ezikian, the deputy superintendent of the Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency, which helps train local districts to identify and support students experiencing homelessness.

“McKinney-Vento does not provide nearly enough funding,” he said. “Frankly, there’s just not enough money for them to do all the work for the amount of kids that we have.”

The traditional level of funding to support homelessness has left many districts struggling to fulfill the law’s requirements.

“There [are] more and more students in crisis and the districts are not really getting more and more resources to help,” said Scott, the senior youth attorney with the National Homelessness Law Center. “It comes down to resources rather than any kind of bad intent. The lack of investment in our schools over time is obviously hitting homeless students even harder.”

In April, 92 members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed a “Dear Colleague” letter, urging the chairwoman and ranking member of the House Education Committee to renew the $800 million in funding, which represents 1% of the federal education budget, for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. It would be money well spent, they argued.

“Investing in a young person’s life will enable them to avoid chronic homelessness, intergenerational cycles of poverty, and pervasive instances of trauma,” the letter read.

Budget bills from both chambers of Congress requested boosts in the program budget that are far short of what the House members requested. Federal budget negotiations will likely resume in December.

Temecula Valley Unified, the district Beth Petersen’s son attends, received $56,000 to serve homeless students through the American Rescue Plan — about $470 per homeless student identified. District staff did not respond to questions regarding funding for homeless education programs. State financial records for the several years before the American Rescue Plan show the district received nothing.

Petersen watches from her apartment steps as her son leaves for the school bus.

Early on a Monday morning in October, Petersen sat at the kitchen table in her shared apartment, applying makeup under the glare of a bowl-shaped ceiling light. Her son emerged from the bathroom, barefoot but otherwise dressed for school. Petersen peered around the corner. Did he want anything for breakfast? He shrugged. No, he was fine.

But then he remembered an assignment that was due: a photo with his mom clearing him to attend a sexual education course. He stooped beside her and angled his laptop for a selfie. Beth could hardly remember the last time she needed to review any of his assignments. He was always a diligent student, even these last few months.

“Do not miss the bus coming home or we will be up a creek,” she said as the pair walked outside, the air crisp as morning haze yielded to blue sky.

At 7:02 a.m., a yellow school bus turned the corner. It slowed to a stop before them, the fruits of Petersen’s long struggle to make the promise of the McKinney-Vento law a reality.

The doors opened, and her son was on his way.

Chalkbeat journalist Lori Higgins contributed to this article.

Amy DiPierro and Corey Mitchell are journalists with the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates inequality.

About our analysis

Public Integrity used a statistical modeling technique called simple linear regression to measure the strength of the association between the percent of students identified as homeless and, separately, three measures used to approximate the incidence of economic disadvantage or poverty:

the percent of students eligible for free- or reduced-price meals
the percent of school-age children under the poverty line
the percent of school-age children in households that are under 50% of the poverty line.

We used federal data aggregated to the level of school districts and similar educational agencies, composing separate models by school year and state. We fit models for each state and the District of Columbia where there was sufficient data in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years.

We considered that a model showed a link between a variable we tested and homelessness if the model accounted for at least 20% of the variation in rates of homelessness and if the probability of coincidence driving results at least as extreme was relatively small. Twenty-four states failed this test on each of the three measures of economic disadvantage.

We assumed districts not included in federal data identified no homeless students. Districts may occasionally be left out in error. But we think our count is conservative in another way. That’s because there are additional districts that specifically told the Department of Education they have no homeless students, but the agency categorized them with districts reporting a low number of students and suppressed those figures.

For more details on our analysis, read our white paper.

Nearly 10% of NYC students were homeless last year, according to report

2022-10-26T10:00:00+00:00

Nearly 1 in 10 students in New York City public schools were homeless last school year, a rate that has stayed largely unchanged for the past six years, even as enrollment has dropped, according to new data released Wednesday.

A total 104,383 children lacked permanent housing last school year across district and charter schools, according to an annual report released by Advocates For Children New York, an organization that advocates on behalf of the city’s highest needs students.

Of those children, about two-thirds were “doubled up,” which means they shared a home with relatives or others because of financial challenges that prevented them from having their own home. Another 28% of these students were living in city shelters, while 5% of students were completely unsheltered — living in places like cars, parks, and abandoned buildings, according to the report. Nearly 360 children lived in hotels or motels.

The share of students who are homeless has largely not budged even as public school enrollment has dipped by 9.5% since the pandemic. This school year, schools also are facing a new challenge: enrolling and supporting thousands of new students in shelters, who are largely believed to be asylum-seeking children from South American countries.

“If these 100,000 children made up their own school district, it would be a district larger than 99.5% of all other districts nationwide,” Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, said in a statement. “While the city works to address the underlying issue of homelessness, we also must ensure that students who are homeless get to class every day and receive the targeted supports they need to succeed in school.”

The increase comes as New York City has seen a steep rise in the number of homeless families with children entering shelters every night, according to city data. Rising housing costs and inflation have likely strained families across the five boroughs.

The number of students without stable housing grew by more than 3% across district and charter schools last school year, when children returned to classrooms full time for the first time since the pandemic hit. The data released Wednesday represents last school year. It follows a 9.5% dip during the 2020-21 school year — but advocates warned that could have been an undercount since most students were learning remotely at the time, making it tougher for educators to identify homeless students.

The rates of homeless students vary widely across different boroughs and community school districts. More than 20% of students were homeless in Bronx’s District 9, the highest rate of any of the city’s 32 districts. In contrast, just under 4% of Staten Island students lacked permanent housing.

Boroughs that tend to enroll a lower share of homeless students saw some of the largest increases last year. Queens saw the highest, with a 12% increase in homeless students, followed by a 7.1% increase in Staten Island.

It’s not clear why those boroughs saw such a steep rise, said Jennifer Pringle, director of Project Learning in Temporary Housing for Advocates for Children. She noted that the pandemic severely impacted Queens, in terms of illness, deaths and job losses. For example, Queens saw job losses at a rate higher than any other borough when the pandemic first hit, according to a report by the state comptroller.

Homeless students face transportation hurdles

Students who are homeless can face many challenges getting to school. In New York City, homeless students in grades K-6 are entitled to transportation to their schools, but families have often struggled to secure reliable busing. When they do get transportation, students in shelters that are far from their schools may face an hours-long commute.

Sometimes families opt to transfer their children’s schools to ease the commute, but that can also have significant drawbacks. One study from 2015 found that New York City students who transferred schools, which occurred more frequently among homeless students, were more likely to be chronically absent. Homeless students who were chronically absent, or missed at least 10% of school days, were three times more likely to repeat the same grade, compared to their homeless peers who missed fewer than five days of school, that report found.

While graduation data for last school year is not yet available, in the 2020-21 school year, just 70% of students who were homeless graduated, compared with 81% of all students. Twelve percent of those students dropped out, compared with 5% of all children.

This summer, Tanika Lashley was placed in a Manhattan shelter despite sharing with Department of Homeless Services staff that her son attends school in Williamsburg. When school started, his father would pick him up daily, following an overnight work shift, and drive him to school during rush hour, Lashley said. During the two weeks that it took for the education department to set up a bus route, Lashley’s son would arrive at school at 11 a.m., missing morning English lessons and earning low marks in the subject on his progress reports, Lashley said.

In the meantime, Lashley was written up at work for lateness because she had to wait for her son to be picked up before she could leave. She didn’t want to transfer her son to another school because she didn’t want to cause more disruption.

“Why should I have to pull him out of a school that he loves?” Lashley said.

A social worker at her son’s school connected her to Advocates For Children, which helped her request a shelter transfer. She entered the new shelter last week, located 20 minutes away from his school, and is waiting for officials to set up a new route for her son. But since they’re closer, her son is getting there on time with the help of his father.

“It’s really hard for mothers, especially single mothers, who are doing it on their own,” Lashley said. “This should not be interfering with a kid’s situation — they’re already going through homelessness.”

The data comes as the city has seen an influx of students seeking asylum from South American countries who are living in shelters, posing a new challenge for schools.

Helping asylum-seeking students in shelters

Schools this year have already enrolled roughly 6,000 new students living in shelters, largely believed to be asylum-seeking students. On top of the extra support that students in shelters need, many of these children are also learning English as a new language and need access to teachers and social workers who speak Spanish — something some schools have struggled to provide this year as they faced budget cuts.

For months, advocates have called for the city to begin hiring 100 shelter-based community coordinators, who are supposed to help families navigate the school system. The education department has not yet hired any of these staffers but has “begun the hiring process” and expects to hire people “soon,” said spokesperson Suzan Sumer.

There are currently 117 shelter-based “family assistants” who are supposed to ensure that families are getting help with enrollment, transportation, and other school-related issues, according to the department. There are also 107 school-based staffers who are tasked with identifying homeless students and ensuring they’re attending school.

In some school communities, parent volunteers are banding together to collect basic supplies for the new asylum-seeking families. At 75 Morton middle school in Greenwich Village, where about 45 newcomers have enrolled, the parent-teacher association has arranged a clothing drive and collected toiletries, backpacks and school supplies for new students and families, said Rebecca Lupardo, co-president of the PTA.

The school librarian created an Amazon wishlist for Spanish texts and, within three days, received 75 books, Lupardo said.

“They may stay in New York City, or they may find a home elsewhere or a better situation, or someone they know in another state even,” Lupardo said. “We’re providing for them in the best possible way we can.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan students making slow progress after pandemic disruptions

2022-10-17T18:53:24+00:00

Michigan students are making academic progress, but it’s not fast enough to fully make up for losses over the past two years.

Students who learned remotely in 2020-21 because of the pandemic continued to learn more slowly than their peers in 2021-22 even after they were back in classrooms. And the school districts where students improved the most last year were the ones that provided students with highly individualized instruction.

These are among the findings in a pair of reports released this morning by the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University. The results are important for understanding where education resources need to go in the aftermath of the pandemic, the EPIC researchers said.

“Everyone thought we’d continue to accelerate learning in 2021-22 and kids would be back on track,” said Katharine Strunk, director of EPIC. “We’re just not seeing that. They’re not close to being back to where they need to be achievement-wise.”

The findings aren’t unique to Michigan, Strunk said.

Neither were district administrators’ struggles to balance health concerns against academic needs as they decided whether to offer in-person instruction during months when COVID was spreading rapidly.

“I don’t know that our focus was any different than anybody else’s globally,” one district administrator told EPIC researchers. “For us, it was definitely safety, and really safety of our staff, our students, and our community members. … I think it’s safe to say nobody had ever felt that level of fear.”

The good news, Strunk said, is that researchers were able to identify strategies that make a difference. They interviewed school leaders and teachers in five districts where test scores grew at higher rates than other districts with similar demographics and modes of instruction during the pandemic. EPIC did not identify the districts studied.

One thing they had in common was individualized support for students, including after-school tutoring and individualized learning plans based on specific academic needs identified on diagnostic tests.

That held true whether students were learning online, in person, or a combination, according to EPIC’s research partners at the University of Pittsburgh and the research arm of NWEA, the nonprofit that developed the math and reading tests given twice a year to assess the academic growth of students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

The districts also set aside time during the school day for students working on the same learning standard to receive small-group instruction.

“These were districts that were able to continue the work of teaching and learning under very challenging circumstances,” said Ayesha K. Hashim, of NWEA.

Some districts created learning labs to address students’ specific learning deficits, researchers said. Others created spreadsheets to track student engagement so teachers could intervene when patterns emerged.

Teachers “worked in grade-level teams to know what students specifically needed and made sure every person working with that student was on the same page,” Strunk said. “They made sure every student received the instruction that particular student needed. That is a big lift for teachers to do, especially in the middle of a pandemic when everything is hectic and they’re switching modalities.”

They also focused on teaching core skills students would need to succeed in the next grade level.

“If you just try to jam two years of curriculum into one year, you can’t,” Strunk said. “It’s just not possible.”

Instead, she said, teachers in the five districts identified building-block skills and focused on those.

Among other characteristics the five districts had in common were readiness to navigate crises, two-way communication with families, and prioritization of social-emotional learning.

Although COVID-related school closures are in the past, the findings remain instructive, researchers said.

“The things we identified are helpful for student learning even if you aren’t in a crisis period,” Hashim said. “These are practices that work.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Where do Hochul and Zeldin stand on education?

2022-11-07T17:29:07+00:00

On the surface, New Yorkers might assume that the state’s candidates for governor — Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Lee Zeldin — would have polar opposite approaches to education if they were elected.

And while that likely holds true in several ways, there are still many open questions about how both would craft policy for schools.

Hochul has not focused much at all on education on the campaign trail, and while her time in office so far provides some clues, her campaign website has no details about her goals for the state’s K-12 schools beyond wanting to invest more money in them.

“As a frontrunner she has little incentive to take sharp or even very precise and specific positions, particularly on policies that are at all controversial, particularly policies that are controversial in suburbs,” said Jeffrey Henig, professor of political science and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.

In contrast, Zeldin is “throwing everything at the wall that Republicans are trying in lots of places,” Henig said.

The congressman has proposed several priorities, such as banning “divisive concepts” from being taught in schools related to race — a talking point that conservatives across the country have embraced — but he has not provided more specifics on many of his ideas. Some of his proposals are self explanatory, such as wanting to lift the cap on how many charter schools can open in New York.

Zeldin’s campaign did not respond to questions asking to elaborate on his positions or provide more details.

As the governor’s race nears this fall, here’s what we know about where both fall on education issues:

Curriculum

Zeldin has said he would ban “divisive curriculum that pits children against one another based on race and other factors” — language that’s similar to what conservative lawmakers in other states have pushed for.

His platform does not explicitly talk about critical race theory, or CRT, which is an academic framework for studying systemic racism but has been used by Republicans as an umbrella term for diversity and inclusion efforts. Both city and state officials have said critical race theory is not taught in the city’s and state’s public schools. Both locally and statewide, officials have encouraged schools to teach culturally responsive lessons.

But Zeldin wrote in an opinion article last year that CRT was politicizing education. In it, he blasted a lengthy framework released by the state education department that encourages — but does not mandate — districts to teach culturally responsive lessons, or lessons that relate to and affirm various students’ backgrounds. The department also wants districts to consider acknowledging the role of racism in American history and create lessons that empower students to be “agents of change.”

Zeldin’s platform also calls for restricting “age-inappropriate” sex education, though it does not detail what that means, requiring financial literacy courses in public schools, and civics lessons that “teach students about how and why they get to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world.”

Still, if Zeldin were elected, it’s unlikely that he would be able to successfully ban schools from teaching about race since the state legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic and unsupportive of such policies. For example, a bill seeking to ban critical race theory in schools didn’t make it out of committee last year.

“You may see outside money and national organizations try to come in and really sort of add amplitude to those messages around parental rights and critical race theory and gender identity issues,” Henig said. “I don’t want to discount the importance of how people talk about things, but the impact on actual policy would be delayed, at best.”

So far, Hochul has not taken a strong position on what sorts of curriculum or learning standards she supports in schools. When pressed about a New York Times investigation that revealed a lack of basic lessons in core subjects, such as English, in Hasidic yeshivas, Hochul said responsibility over those private religious schools fell to the state education department, not her office. (Zeldin has been supportive of the Hasidic yeshivas, and has been courting the vote of the Orthodox and Hasidic communities, the New York Times reported.)

Asked where Hochul stands on curriculum, her campaign pointed to an ABC 7 story from May, where she said she supported a bill that would have required New York schools to teach about Asian American history. (The bill did not move out of committee.) They also pointed to a bill she signed that requires the state education department to ensure school districts are meeting requirements to teach children about the Holocaust — an idea that Zeldin also supports.

Traditional public schools vs. charter schools

Zeldin has expressed substantial support for school choice and charter schools. In fact, he first announced his education agenda last spring outside of a Success Academy school in Queens.

Zeldin supports lifting the cap on how many charter schools can open in New York, which was reached in the city in 2019. He also wants to establish “tax credits for school choice” and create education savings accounts, but doesn’t provide more details. With an education savings account, parents can withdraw their children from public schools and receive tax dollars in a restricted-use account to pay for private school or other educational options like therapy.

The state legislature so far has not supported lifting the charter cap.

Zeldin’s platform online says he wants more options for “technical grade school level learning, experience and certification,” though it’s unclear if he’s referring to career preparation programs or something else.

On the city level, Zeldin saw eye to eye with Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul on extending mayoral control of schools. And, like Adams, Zeldin also supports keeping the controversial admissions exam in place for the city’s specialized high schools, as well as “advanced and specialized” academics. He’s earned the support of some parents who favor screened admissions to the city’s public middle and high schools and “gifted and talented” programs.

During a debate with Zeldin on Oct. 25, Hochul also said she supported lifting the charter school cap, which seemed to be the first time she said that publicly. [Note: This story originally published before the debate and was updated to reflect her comment.] She’s repeatedly touted overseeing a budget that sent more state money to school districts as the result of an agreement to fully fund Foundation Aid, the state funding formula that sends more money to higher needs districts.

Hochul has taken an interest in boosting mental health resources for students, ensuring more children go to college, specifically by expanding college tuition assistance to part-time students in New York, and has attempted to address the teacher shortage by expanding alternative teacher certification programs and temporarily waiving an income cap for teacher retirees who want to return to the profession.

She also signed a popular bill that requires lower class sizes in New York City, which was celebrated by many families, the teachers union, and advocates. City officials and some conservative parent groups pushed back, arguing the mandate would pull money away from other services for students.

School budgets and enrollment

Neither Hochul nor Zeldin have addressed one of the most critical issues facing public schools: dipping enrollment.

Enrollment in traditional public schools has dropped by more than 2% nationwide since the onset of the pandemic, and by about 9.5% in New York City public schools. Changes in enrollment have big implications for school budgets that are closely tied to the number of students in classrooms. That issue is already playing out in New York City, where three-quarters of schools saw cuts in the funding that pays for staff and programs for students.

Zeldin’s education platform doesn’t address the issue. While Hochul has touted her commitment to boosting funding for public schools, she has not addressed what to do about enrollment changes across the state.

“What you see on the Hochul side is, ‘Yes, we support education, we are willing to spend more on it,’ but kind of resisting what progressive forces might want to see on the campaign, in terms of challenging basic funding formulas in ways that might not play well in wealthy or more affluent communities that would see this as redirecting state monies away from them and towards lower-income communities,” Henig said.

COVID policies

Most COVID mitigations for schools have ended, so it’s not likely that the election of either candidate would drastically change that.

Both Zeldin and Hochul have supported peeling back COVID mitigations, such as masking, with Hochul recently calling remote learning a “mistake.” But Zeldin has pushed harder to remove all sorts of mandates.

While Hochul ended mask mandates, she also oversaw sending at-home COVID tests to schools and has touted keeping schools open during a major surge in infections last winter, though in-person instruction was still severely disrupted. (She’s come under fire in recent weeks for a deal she made when choosing a vendor for those tests.)

Zeldin has opposed COVID vaccine and mask mandates. If elected, he may press Adams to drop a vaccine mandate in place for New York City schools staff. At one point, Hochul expressed support for requiring children to get COVID vaccines. The state legislature would have to pass a bill that added COVID vaccines to the list of already required shots for school children, according to the New York Times.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC test scores drop in math, increase in reading

2022-09-28T17:53:55+00:00

Nearly half of New York City’s third through eighth graders passed their state reading tests last school year, while about 38% passed math, according to scores released by city officials Wednesday.

The scores are the first measure of how students across the five boroughs have fared in reading and math since the coronavirus pandemic upended in-person schooling and left many children grappling with isolation and grief. Though schools gave students other city-mandated assessments last year, officials have refused to publicly release the results.

“During the pandemic, kids went through all kinds of challenges that they’re still recovering from,” schools Chancellor David Banks told reporters Wednesday. “No matter what the latest test results tell you, I can tell you the system is broken in far too many ways. We are trying to create a new way forward.”

Overall reading scores increased slightly, up 1.6 percentage points from 2019, while math scores dropped significantly, down 7.6 percentage points. The city didn’t release results for charter schools.

Looking at grade-by-grade data, however, provides a different picture for reading scores: For the youngest students, third and fourth graders, scores fell by 4 percentage points and 6 percentage points respectively.

City officials compared the scores to 2019 results, noting the past two years of disruptions. The state canceled the exams in 2020. The following year, the state allowed families to opt into taking them the following year. Just one-fifth of city students took them.

State officials, however, cautioned against comparing the test results to 2019 because of the ongoing effects of the pandemic and the “different rates of participation among students.” Roughly 10% of city students opted out of either reading or math exams, compared with 4% in 2019, education department officials said.

The percentage of children who passed math tests dropped for every major student group, with the largest decline among Latino students, by 10 percentage points. In contrast, passing rates for reading grew for every student group, with the largest increase among students known as “ever ELLs,” or students who were once considered learning English as a new language but are not anymore.

Disparities remained between white and Asian American students compared with their Black and Latino peers. About 70.5% of Asian American and 67% of white students passed reading exams, compared with 35.8% of students who are Black and 36.8% who are Latino. For math, 68.3% of Asian American students and 58.5% of white students passed compared with 20.6% of Black children and 23.3% of Latino students.

Disparities also persisted among students with higher needs. Among students with disabilities, 18.3% passed reading and 14.4% passed math. Among students learning English as a new language, 12.7% passed reading, while 15% scored proficient in math.

The scores could be one tool for schools to understand which students need more support this year. In response to the dip in national test scores, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said schools should be prioritizing COVID relief funds to boost academic support and extra tutoring.

However, as federal funds dry up, schools are receiving less money this year to create extra tutoring programs or provide extra support to students with disabilities. And unlike last year, schools can use that pool of money to hire staff as schools grapple with budget cuts, tied to projected declining enrollment.

Aaron Pallas, a professor at Teachers College and an expert in testing, doesn’t believe the scores can be compared to 2019 because of declining enrollment and higher opt-out rates. Compared with 2019, 21% fewer children took math tests and 18% fewer children sat for reading tests, according to city data.

Pallas said he expects people to use the scores to bolster arguments that traditional public schools don’t work, as Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin has, but that there’s not enough information to make those conclusions.

“Quite honestly, I don’t really think [the scores are] that useful, certainly not for building level or district-level decisions about the allocation of resources,” Pallas said, adding that parents also won’t have the right context to understand their children’s results.

Some advocates said the scores signal that schools need more resources, particularly for younger children who were learning to read when the pandemic first hit, pointing to the dip in reading pass rates for third and fourth graders. Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children New York, said “it will be critical” to learn from new programs focused on improving literacy.

The scores could be a factor in middle and high school admissions this year. Schools that screen students were previously allowed to use test scores as one factor for admission, but that was paused during the pandemic and barred last year under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. City officials are expected to announce this year’s admissions criteria soon.

Banks has been critical of standardized testing, saying that schools that are laser-focused on exams can’t offer a “fully comprehensive learning experience.” On Wednesday, after touring classrooms at his alma mater, Hillcrest High School, Banks emphasized that the measure of student success is whether they’ll be prepared for quality jobs after they graduate.

“The return on investment is not the scores that they got on standardized exams,” Banks said. “Test scores are important, but they’re not everything.”

Unlike past years, Wednesday’s test scores could not immediately be compared to other New York districts or even statewide. In a departure, this year’s scores were released by New York City rather than the state, which has not yet released statewide results.

After initially barring districts from sharing the scores, state officials gave the OK last week for local districts.

Officials plan to release statewide scores sometime this fall, but have not said when, and blamed the delay on a cumbersome process for releasing both preliminary and final scores this year.

Amy Zimmer and Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

New test data: Young readers, middle school math students struggling

2022-09-14T11:00:00+00:00

Test scores from nearly two million students nationwide show that while students made gains in the last year, a smaller share are able to read and do math at their grade level compared with before the pandemic began.

The results illuminate two particular areas of concern: More young children are struggling with early reading skills, while more older elementary and middle school students are missing foundational math skills like subtraction and multiplication.

The latest batch of data underscores how the pandemic and years of disrupted school derailed student learning, and comes soon after other national data showed 9-year-olds’ math and reading scores plummeted between 2020 and 2022. The new tests echo earlier reports showing that students who struggled before the pandemic are having the toughest time catching up, and suggest schools need to do more to help young readers and kids struggling in math class.

“Student learning is in a better place today in 2022 than it was two years ago,” said Kristen Huff, the vice president for assessment and research at Curriculum Associates, which makes the test that was used to gather these results. Still, “the students who we’re most concerned about — students who are two or more grade levels below — their trajectory of recovery is much slower than students who are on grade level.”

The results, released Wednesday, are drawn from students in grades 1-8 who took the i-Ready test at school this past spring. Testing officials compared them to a similar group of students from spring 2021, and to students who took the tests the last two years before the pandemic.

This test zeroes in on which skills students have mastered, making it a good indicator of exactly what students are struggling with and where schools may want to devote more time and money to get students caught up.

As some other tests have found, the i-Ready showed more trouble spots in math than reading.

Students in most grades saw small or modest increases in math performance from last year to this year, likely buoyed by a year of in-person learning, researchers noted. Still, a growing share of older elementary and middle school students are considered below grade level in math — a “disquieting” finding that signals the “need for targeted, intensive, and effective mathematics interventions,” Curriculum Associates researchers wrote.

Foundational math skills were a concern for students in every grade, with fewer students demonstrating grade-level mastery of essential skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Fewer students in grades 3 to 5, especially, hit their grade-level targets in math compared with pre-pandemic times, which researchers said was “especially problematic” because students learn math in those grades that is “pivotal” to math going forward. And students in grades 5 to 8 are especially losing ground in algebra and algebraic thinking, the data show.

That’s worrying because if students are stumbling over math facts in elementary school, it can make it harder to learn the more conceptual math that sets students up for algebraic thinking in middle school.

“What we see, specifically, is that students are falling behind in a couple of critical phases in their learning,” Huff said.

In reading, the share of older elementary and middle school students who are considered on grade level is getting close to pre-pandemic levels. But students in first and second grade, in particular, are scoring lower than they did pre-pandemic, likely because it was hard for them to learn to read when school was remote earlier in their school careers, researchers wrote.

A growing share of first and second graders are below grade level in phonics, the data show, which could have “worrisome implications” for their future reading abilities, the report says.

“Students who were able to learn the mechanics of reading, despite the challenges of an interrupted school year(s), will likely continue to grow,” the researchers wrote. Students who didn’t get the phonics help they needed at home “will likely continue to fall further behind.”

In southwest Idaho, Superintendent Sherry Ann Adams was pleased to see her students’ scores in math and reading improve on the i-Ready test this year, but she knows they still have work to do in math.

When her rural district of some 850 students went remote in the spring of 2020, officials realized that while most families had internet access, it often wasn’t powerful enough to support their online programs or for more than one child to learn online at once. They turned to a mix of virtual instruction and paper packets, which worked well enough for reading practice, but not for reviewing math skills.

“They missed about a quarter of a year of good math instruction,” Adams said.

While her district had early literacy intervention programs in place before the pandemic, math wasn’t as big of a focus, so schools are now working to add extra support in that subject.

This year, the district is setting aside time for elementary school teachers to work in small groups with students who are struggling with their math facts and other foundational skills. A third grade teacher may pull aside all the students who are working on multiplication tables, for example, while the other two teachers guide the rest of the third graders in other activities.

“We know, across the board, that’s one of the areas we have to continue to focus on,” Adams said.

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

Attention ninth graders: Applications open for NYC’s virtual high school

2022-06-23T22:24:29+00:00

Applications are open for the city’s new virtual high school program, which will only serve 200 ninth graders this coming school year, Chancellor David Banks announced Thursday.

The program, called “A School Without Walls,” is meant to provide students with individualized remote instruction, internships, and service-based learning.

Rising ninth graders can apply using their MySchools account. They will be able to choose between hybrid or virtual models, each offering 100 seats. The deadline is July 6, and students will be notified of lottery results by mid-July.

The new program might be a draw for families who still feel uncomfortable attending in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic. But city officials did not say whether certain students would get preference for the lottery.

All enrolled students will receive a laptop, and teachers will provide live instruction as well as pre-recorded, or asynchronous, lessons from school campuses. Students will have access to resources at these schools, including counseling services, technical assistance, and extracurricular activities.

Students opting for the hybrid model will attend classes in person for half of the day and engage in remote learning for the other half. In-person classes will be held at an education department building at 131 Livingston St. in Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, the virtual model is fully remote, with both live lessons and self-paced learning.

Banks said the city collaborated with high school students to design the program, using lessons from the pandemic.

“The pandemic underscored the importance of reimagining the student experience for our children, giving them the opportunity to freely pursue their interests and passions as part of their high school journey,” Banks said in a statement.

New York City is joining the nation’s other 20 largest school districts in offering a remote option this fall. Half of those districts, like New York City, are offering more full-time virtual schooling than they did before the pandemic, Chalkbeat previously found, illustrating the impact of online schooling even as questions remain about how effective such programs are.

A spokesperson for the city’s education department said that teachers will model after traditional high schools and base the curriculum on the NYS Standards. “Courses will rely heavily on project-based, interdisciplinary learning with additional support provided for math and science,” the spokesperson said.

The city hasn’t yet announced all of the details related to the curriculum, but virtual open houses for interested students will be held on June 29, June 30, and July 5.

Tom Liam Lynch, who runs the InsideSchools online guide, said it’s important for teachers to receive training and support for the virtual model.

“How are we ensuring that these virtual school options are high quality, culturally responsive, socially emotionally aware, and attending to the needs that students have?” he asked.

Lynch also said that if the curriculum has been purchased from a vendor, it needs to be modified or adapted to the specific needs of New York City’s students.

“In the wake of COVID, the entire planet has just experienced that it is possible to connect online. There’s an awareness that there are models that could work in our school system,” Lynch said.

Marcela Rodrigues-Sherley is a reporting intern for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Marcela at mrodrigues-sherley@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district’s virtual school tightens rules to tackle absenteeism

2022-06-07T18:22:07+00:00

The Detroit school district will tighten standards for enrollment in its virtual school to address sky-high rates of chronic absenteeism and academic failure.

The district also plans to expand options for elective courses, implement a midyear check-in for incoming students, and re-evaluate teachers in the online school.

The virtual school, which grew out of the online teaching systems used during the height of the pandemic, has been operating for nearly a year, with as many as 2,100 students in grades K-12. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has said he’s committed to keeping the school operating for families who are still uncomfortable with in-person learning, but he and others have raised concerns about how well the school is meeting student needs.

Parents have complained about overfilled virtual classrooms, teacher turnover, and inadequate instruction for children with special education needs. Some teachers have lamented their working conditions.

Meanwhile, district data show that about 77% of students in the virtual school are chronically absent, meaning they have missed more than 10% of the school year. That’s even higher than the 69% rate for students who attend in person.

What’s more, through mid-April, nearly half of students in the virtual school failed at least one core class and were chronically absent.

Under the new rules for next year, students in that category will not be allowed into the virtual school.

“Our expectations for attendance and passing rates will be higher starting next year,” said Vitti.

“We want the virtual school to be offered,” he added, “but we also want children to be successful, and we need students who can keep pace and be supported at home through the virtual school or we’re setting up students for failure.”

Vitti had proposed similar restrictions last year before the virtual school opened, but the district backed away from them.

The discussion about reinforcing Detroit’s virtual school is happening as districts across the country look to beef up or create online options for the coming school year. A Chalkbeat review found that nearly all of the nation’s 20 largest school districts will have a remote option this fall, with at least half offering more full-time online schooling than they did before the pandemic.

Los Angeles plans to expand its remote learning options this fall ahead of its implementation of a student vaccine mandate. New York City is moving forward with plans to launch two fully virtual schools that will serve ninth graders only next year. Chicago’s Virtual Academy will return this fall despite concerns from families and advocates over lack of transparency about the school’s curriculum as well as its lack of resources for English language learners and students with disabilities.

In Detroit, district officials agree that the virtual school isn’t working the way it should, though they haven’t always been able to agree on how to make it more successful.

This spring, Vitti considered limiting enrollment next year to grades 4-12, based on conversations with school leaders that suggested the virtual school may not be the right space for early childhood literacy. But concerns from the school board’s academic committee about discontinuing early grades scotched that plan.

Attendance remains an overarching worry. Board chair Angelique Peterson-Mayberry said during May’s board meeting that the attendance statistics are “not good from our students’ perspective.”

“There are things that we need to do differently going into the fall,” Peterson-Mayberry said. “We do feel that we are failing young people if we know that they are not attending and we are not putting measures in place for them to attend.”

Vitti said what developed as an alternative to in-person learning during the pandemic is due for a change.

“I think it is time to just rethink the virtual setting to make sure that we’re screening students and frankly holding students and families accountable to attendance and achievement in a virtual setting,” Vitti said.

Additional changes could include expanding course offerings for electives, reenrolling high-performing students with consistent attendance, and implementing a midyear check-in for incoming students to determine if they want to remain after the fall semester. Teachers would be reevaluated to determine if they are the right fit for online teaching.

Tom Van Hulle, a high school social studies teacher at the virtual school, said although the program is still a “work in progress,” he believes the remote learning option is making an impact.

“I’m able to talk to students, and they’re able to participate in ways a traditional school setting wasn’t set up for them,” Van Hulle said during a May school board meeting. “Whether it’s for mental health, physical health, transportation … there’s just a whole host of issues I think Detroit’s virtual school is really answering.”

Others are losing patience.

Caregiver and special education advocate Sharon Kelso watches her nephews’ virtual high school classes every day. Between witnessing teachers getting replaced midyear and larger class sizes, she’s been concerned that her nephews and other students have lost interest in school.

“The kids are there, but when they come there’s nothing for them to learn,” she said of her ninth and 11th grade nephews. “They’re frustrated, they’re disappointed. Their morale is low, and they really hate going to school because they’re not being taught.”

Kelso plans to send both of the children to in-person school in the fall but worries that the district won’t do enough to help online students make the transition back to in-person learning.

Aliya Moore, parent of a sixth grader who attends the virtual school, said she will be returning her daughter to in-person school this fall after dealing with “the instability of the year.” Moore initially enrolled her daughter due to safety concerns, but grew reluctant to keep her in the school as she observed teacher absences during the fall semester.

Kendra White, a third grade teacher in the virtual school, described an unpleasant work environment. While students attend online, all virtual school teachers are required to teach in person at the former Communication and Media Arts high school. There isn’t enough space in that building for each teacher to have their own classroom. So they share. That might mean three teachers in one room — all trying to conduct their own lessons.

“It’s so noisy, you can’t think, you can’t focus,” White said.

White says students are being shortchanged, too.

“We had so many students, we can’t take care of them,” she said. ”We can’t fit their needs. We can’t do interventions for kids that need to read for their third grade reading law. There was no time to service these children, and that’s a disservice to the families of third grade.”

Vitti countered that the district is offering noise-canceling headphones for teachers. In addition, he said, under the district’s $700 million facilities plan, more classroom space could be offered to teachers once DPSCD Virtual School is moved to the currently vacant Northern High School building.

“This is an evolution of improvement when it comes to the virtual school,” Vitti said.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Sticking around: Most big districts will offer virtual learning this fall, a sign of pandemic’s effect

2022-06-06T11:00:00+00:00

All kinds of applications have come Monica Morris’ way as she prepares to open the Dallas school district’s first standalone virtual school this fall.

Some applicants are students who have been homeschooled or enrolled in a temporary online program. Others struggled this year after returning to in-person class. A handful have serious medical needs.

All are hoping to attend iLearn Virtual Academy next year, which will enroll up to 350 students in third through eighth grades.

“We have seen a lot of interest,” said Morris, the school’s principal. “This isn’t just a pandemic response mode of learning anymore.”

Dallas is one of several large school districts set to expand their virtual offerings in the coming school year. Some, like Los Angeles and New York City, plan to open new standalone schools, while others, like Gwinnett County in Georgia, will add grade levels.

Nearly all of the nation’s 20 largest school districts will have a remote option this fall, with at least half offering more full-time virtual schooling than they did before the pandemic, a Chalkbeat review found. The shifts suggest that districts’ expansion of online schooling is poised to be a lasting consequence of the pandemic, despite longstanding questions about its effectiveness.

“Overall, 95% of the kids who attended school before the pandemic will be attending in person after the pandemic and in the near future,” said Larry Cuban, an education historian at Stanford University. “What I think the pandemic has done is to enlarge the option for those who don’t want to attend school in person, [or] who cannot because of illness.”

Last fall, as schools returned to predominantly in-person instruction, the vast majority of students returned to school buildings. A small but significant group of families wanted to remain virtual, though, and many districts expanded their virtual schools or launched temporary remote options.

Now, some are keeping or expanding virtual learning, turning it into a longer-term option for that slice of their student population.

Montgomery County and Prince George’s County schools in Maryland, for example, are continuing virtual schools that they created during the pandemic. Chicago will continue to run a virtual academy for students with certain medical conditions.

A number of other large districts, including San Diego, Philadelphia, and Clark County, Nevada, will maintain expanded versions of their virtual schools. All three added elementary grades during the pandemic.

Others are building something from scratch. In New York City, one of the few large districts that didn’t offer virtual learning this year, officials plan to launch two new virtual schools this fall that will initially serve ninth graders.

“There are some folks who are absolutely opposed to this — it’s not for them,” said Carolyne Quintana, who oversees teaching and learning for the district. “And for the folks who absolutely need it, it is.”

Elsewhere, officials have raised concerns as plans to launch new schools came together. In Los Angeles, then-interim superintendent Megan Reilly was blunt when she told the school board earlier this year: “We all believe that in-person education is absolutely the best.”

Despite that, she recommended starting six new virtual schools, framing it as a way to accommodate families with lingering pandemic safety concerns, which could stave off more enrollment losses. Nearly 18,000 students, or 4% of the student population, enrolled in the district’s remote learning option this year, an “independent study” program that suffered staffing shortages and drew complaints about lesson quality.

Reilly faced some pushback — “When do kids get to go poke each other and run around and throw balls at each other?” George McKenna, a former district teacher and principal, asked rhetorically. But the board, with McKenna the sole dissenter, ultimately signed off on the plan.

Research on virtual schooling remains largely discouraging. Prior to the pandemic, students who opted into virtual charter schools tended to have lower test score gains and graduation rates. Studies during the pandemic showed that students who weren’t attending school in person fell further behind academically than those who returned to classrooms.

Data from Chicago Public Schools showed students enrolled in its virtual program this year had lower-than-average attendance. In Detroit, the district’s virtual school struggled to stay fully staffed, and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said recently that about one in three students both failed a core class and were chronically absent during the first semester.

Officials say improvements are coming, but some families plan to change course after a frustrating virtual year. “They really hate going to school because they’re not being taught,” Sharon Kelso, a caregiver and special education advocate, said of her two nephews in Detroit.

Some have questioned the pre-pandemic research findings because students who choose an online school may face other challenges that push down their test scores. Others say that while virtual school might not be ideal, it could help keep some students in school.

“Certain students might be dropping out in lieu of remote learning,” said Bree Dusseault, an analyst with the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

In Dallas, Morris is trying to head off some of those concerns. Elementary-age children will spend more live time on video than older students, and staffers are already planning in-person activities — something potential students often inquire about.

“They want to know about the clubs, and the field trips, and the opportunities to connect, because I think that’s what they missed the most in the virtual experience,” Morris said. “We want the kids to feel a part of something.”

Other large districts have scrapped or chosen not to expand their virtual options. Fairfax County in Virginia is dropping a virtual program available to students with specific medical conditions this year. Wake County, North Carolina is also eliminating its virtual school, while Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools will begin phasing out its virtual option for elementary students while keeping it for older grades.

“We believe two things — our schools are safe for all students and our students are more successful learning in person,” Fairfax County officials told families in March when officials announced the upcoming end of the virtual program, which enrolled less than 400 students this year.

Hawaii’s state-wide district will allow individual schools to offer remote learning, but officials decided against creating a standalone virtual school for now.

Other districts are rolling back the live instruction they offered to virtual learners, reverting to a more self-paced strategy they employed before the pandemic.

In Duval County, Florida, educators are expecting some 2,000 students at the district’s standalone virtual school next year, many more than the few hundred students it served pre-pandemic. Live virtual instruction will no longer be available, and teachers anticipate some younger students will struggle to stay on top of their schoolwork without the typical school schedule they followed this year.

That’s why teachers are planning to host extra virtual “success sessions” with students and their families, and offer in-person help when needed.

“Brick and mortar might be a better option for some students,” said Leslie Jones, who teaches 12th graders at the school. “But if they are with us, their teachers are doing everything they can to build that rapport.”

Ethan Bakuli contributed reporting.

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

Matt Barnum is a national reporter covering education policy, politics, and research. Contact him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.

NYC is launching two virtual schools with a catch: Ninth graders only for now

2022-06-01T21:30:57+00:00

New York City is moving forward with plans to launch two virtual schools that will serve ninth graders only next year, officials recently revealed.

One of the schools will have a “heavy” career and internship focus while the other will be “completely remote,” said Carolyne Quintana, deputy chancellor for teaching and learning, during a virtual meeting last week with the NYC Coalition for Educating Families Together, a parent advocacy group.

“Those virtual school options are for students who may need to work from home, whether it’s for health reasons, for socio-emotional reasons, [or] maybe they were more successful that way,” she said, adding that the city is “working with partners to get that done.”

The city plans to eventually expand the offerings to include middle school students, Quintana noted, though she offered no timeline. The department did not want to create a virtual option for elementary students for now since that would require a caregiver to stay home, she said.

Since taking office in January, schools Chancellor David Banks has repeatedly said that he sees a greater role for virtual instruction even absent the COVID pandemic, arguing it could give students access to a wider range of quality learning experiences.

But he has yet to share the specifics of that vision, and many unanswered questions remain about the city’s two forthcoming virtual programs. Among them: how will they be structured, what will the curriculum be, and how can families enroll. The regular high school application process has concluded, though students have not yet received admissions offers.

Tom Liam Lynch, who runs the InsideSchools online guide, said it is crucial for the city to provide information to the tens of thousands of rising ninth graders who are expected to soon receive high school admissions offers and may want to consider a virtual option.

“The onus is on the administration at this point to formally share those specifics so families can start to wrap their heads around what the fall might look like for their children,” he said.

Providing students some virtual offerings a la carte, such as computer science or AP classes, as the city has previously tried, would be relatively easy to quickly launch, Lynch said. But launching a full-time virtual option is a much heavier lift.

Education department officials declined to answer questions about the virtual programs and have not said who will staff them or even if they will launch by the first day of school in September. Nathaniel Styer, a department spokesperson, said more details will be shared “soon.” The city’s teachers union said last month that they had “initial conversations” with the city about virtual teaching, but did not yet reach any concrete agreements.

“We’re still awaiting further discussions with the DOE,” a union spokesperson said Wednesday.

Jennifer Goddard, a Brooklyn mom who asked Quintana about virtual options during last week’s meeting, said she was disappointed to learn they would only be available for ninth graders.

Her 10-year-old son, who has asthma and an overactive immune system, has been enrolled in the city’s program for medically fragile students, which only provides one hour a day of instruction. Goddard said the education department instructor her son works with during that hour is excellent, but she still spends hundreds of dollars a month on supplementary instruction from a company called Outschool. She had hoped the city would provide a full-fledged remote learning option this fall.

“I want him to be in school and make new friends,” Goddard said. “[But] it’s a choice between a child’s health and their education, and it shouldn’t be that way. It fills me with dread to have to make this decision again.”

Banks initially suggested he was open to creating a remote learning option as the omicron wave exploded this winter, but that never materialized, frustrating some parents who were fearful of COVID exposure in school buildings. More than 175,000 students and 56,000 staff have tested positive this school year, according to city data.

New York City is one of just a handful of large school districts that did not provide a virtual option this year. Philadelphia and Detroit created virtual academies during the pandemic. Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school district behind New York City, plans to launch new virtual schools this fall. But for some districts that ran virtual academies separately from their regular schools, there was less interest in them, in part because there were fewer opportunities for students to interact with their classmates and teachers.

In New York City, it’s unclear how much demand there will be for virtual options this fall, though limiting them to ninth grade will significantly narrow the potential pool of students. If the programs are popular, and as they expand to middle school, significant tradeoffs could arise.

The city’s public schools (excluding charters) have seen enrollment slide about 6.4%, or roughly 64,000 students, since the pandemic hit, and new remote offerings could further drain students — and funding — from brick-and-mortar campuses. Such attrition could increase pressure to close or merge schools. On the other hand, the virtual programs could help keep some families in the district who might otherwise have considered other options.

Whether remote options will work well for students remains murky. Research has linked online learning to worse test scores. Students who learned remotely last school year tended to do worse academically than students who were in person, according to two studies. Even those who voluntarily chose virtual schools before the pandemic tended to experience lower test scores and graduation rates.

Still some argue that an online option can help prevent students from dropping out or provide needed options for students who were bullied or have medical needs. New York City officials initially suggested that virtual options could help battle chronic absenteeism, which has surged this school year. And some parents reported that their children thrived with remote instruction.

Quintana acknowledged that officials aren’t sure how many students will be attracted to future virtual offerings but said parents “should be able to choose and be supported” if they wanted a remote option.

“There are some folks who are absolutely opposed to this — it’s not for them,” she added. “And for the folks who absolutely need it, it is.”

Matt Barnum contributed

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Fewer virtual days expected in Indiana schools after state policy change

2022-05-19T20:04:55+00:00

A new state law limiting how much time students spend on virtual learning is pushing some Indiana districts to adjust how they handle snow days and professional development.

Effective next school year, the state will limit schools to three days of asynchronous instruction — defined as days when over half of instructional time is virtual and self-paced, without students spending any online time with a teacher. The law allows schools to use unlimited synchronous instruction, where teachers deliver lessons via video call to students who are at home.

The new law will likely mean adjustments for schools that have offered asynchronous learning to avoid calling off school, either for COVID threats or inclement weather, or to offer training for staff.

Lawmakers sought to crack down on districts they thought were relying too heavily on asynchronous days, when students don’t interact with teachers.

In the past five years, districts increasingly turned to virtual learning in lieu of canceling school, said Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association. The COVID pandemic accelerated that trend as campuses closed for safety reasons or staff shortages, and as schools provided students and staff more devices and better technology to work remotely.

Spradlin characterized the new law as reasonable.

“There’s no dispute that the best instruction a student can receive is with their highly qualified teacher in the classroom,” he said.

Still, asynchronous instruction can be a quality option, and has been an attractive alternative to closing campuses for a traditional snow day, Spradlin said. The latter requires schools to make up the loss — but some doubt the effectiveness of summer makeup days.

“If you tack them on at the end of the year, it’s after students have taken final exams. Their coursework has been completed, they have spring fever, and they’re anxious to get out of school,” Spradlin said.

All school corporations in Indiana must offer 180 days of student instruction. The state exempts charter schools, Department of Education spokesperson Holly Lawson said.

Still, the new restrictions are not absolute. Schools can apply for waivers if they hold more than three asynchronous days due to “extraordinary circumstances,” according to an April memo from the department.

Reasons for virtual days

Not all schools in the state reported using virtual learning days this school year, but those that did cited both weather and COVID-related reasons. Indiana saw spikes in virus cases both at the beginning of the school year and in January as the omicron variant surged.

North White schools reported 14 days of virtual learning — seven due to a spike in COVID cases, Superintendent Nicholas Eccles said, and another seven due to weather issues.

All of the days were asynchronous, Eccles said. Next year, the district will plan to offer three asynchronous learning days, along with three days built into the calendar to make up for any school closures.

Any additional virtual learning needed will be synchronous, Eccles said.

Leaders of Portage Township schools, which reported 11 e-learning days this year, are discussing with teachers association representatives next year’s plans for virtual instruction.

“It is important to us that we adhere to this law while continuing to prioritize the worthwhile missions, such as staff professional development and weather-based at-home learning, that our e-learning days afforded us,” spokesperson Melissa Deavers-Lowie said.

Other issues such as bus driver shortages also have led schools to turn to virtual learning this year. Some e-learning days are pre-planned, used by districts like Elkhart and Hamilton Southeastern schools when teachers attend professional development.

The new state law prompted the district to cut those days from four to three, HSE spokesperson Emily Pace Abbots said.

The district has also built makeup days into its calendar in case of school day cancellations. If more than two days are lost, the district will turn to teacher-led virtual learning, Pace Abbotts said.

Spradlin of the school boards association said schools that have offered independent virtual learning for professional development may have to change course and return to previous practices of early dismissal or late arrival days instead.

To decide when to hold an asynchronous day, districts will have to consider meeting the calendar requirements, as well as whether all their students can access live, video instruction.

“For virtual synchronous, do students have connectivity? Have we issued a device? Can they sign on in real time?” Spradlin said. “Otherwise that would count as an absent day for underprivileged students. We wouldn’t want that.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

New York to increase weekly instruction for medically fragile students

2022-05-17T20:45:15+00:00

New York state officials will increase the number of hours students with medical conditions must receive after a flurry of questions from parents and school districts — but the mandate won’t take effect until the 2023-2024 school year.

The changes affect students who, for medical reasons, won’t be in school for at least 10 days over a three-month period and are learning from home or a hospital setting. Starting in 2023, these students must receive at least 10 hours of weekly instruction, up from five, if they’re in elementary or middle school, and at least 15 hours for high schoolers, an increase from 10 hours a week.

The increase does not go into effect until 2023 because state officials wanted to give districts time to budget properly, according to a spokesperson for the state education department.

“I think there was a common understanding that the five to 10 hours were not nearly enough,” Mary Beth Casey, assistant commissioner at the state education department, told the Board of Regents Monday.

State officials say the new regulations come after hearing many questions from caregivers and districts as the pandemic wore on about how to provide instruction for medically fragile children, including immunocompromised students. They’re also, for the first time, requiring districts to follow a timeline to approve and provide such instruction for these students.

In New York City, 20 different conditions qualify children for medically necessary instruction. This school year, just over 2,500 students applied for such services, and 84% of them were approved, according to an education department spokesperson, who did not immediately share the equivalent pre-pandemic data. Sixty-five percent of these children received in-person instruction, which involves a teacher coming to their home or another setting to teach them, while the rest was virtual.

At the start of this school year, parents whose children have medical conditions and were at higher risk for severe COVID infections faced agonizing decisions about whether to send them back to school buildings. Should they risk their child getting infected, or should they apply for the home instruction program, which would mean getting 1-2 hours of schooling a day?

“We had to make a really difficult decision to send her to school,” parent Rodney Lee told Chalkbeat in October about his daughter who has a seizure disorder and was at a higher risk for severe COVID. “Every day we pray, and we hope that she stays healthy.”

The new rules will mean just an extra hour of learning a day for these students. Still, it’s a “really critical” change for families, said Maggie Moroff, a special education policy expert at Advocates for Children, who said that even pre-pandemic students at home were getting far fewer hours of instruction when compared to their peers in school.

“There was so little oversight, and experiences were so dramatically different, but in a world where more and more students are needing to learn from home in order to remain healthy and safe, we really want to make sure that they get the supports that they need,” Moroff said.

The state also created several more requirements that districts must meet.

Previously, there was no required timeline around how quickly students could be approved and receive such instruction. Starting this July, districts must start home or hospital instruction for a child within five school days of either being notified of that student’s medical condition or a guardian’s request for such instruction — whichever happens first. Districts must decide and notify parents whether their child is eligible for home or hospital instruction five days after a parent or guardian sends a doctor’s note verifying the child’s medical condition. Parents can appeal a denial within five days, but the district must continue providing services while the appeal is being considered.

Creating an approval timeline could also have a big impact on families. Moroff said some cases took so long for services to be set up, that some children lost months of schooling.

“We would wait sometimes for months for their home instruction to start, even after it had been approved,” Moroff said.

The state is also requiring districts to create plans for these students that describe how many hours of instruction they’ll receive and how their lesson plans are keeping them on track — something New York City already does, the city spokesperson said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Proposal would make it easier for NY students to pass Regents exams

2022-05-17T14:50:38+00:00

Update: The Board of Regents approved this proposal on Tuesday, May 17.

After a third school year disrupted by the pandemic, New York state officials want to allow students to more easily appeal failing scores on Regents exams, starting this spring through the end of next school year.

Students now must earn a 65 or higher to pass Regents exams, which are required to earn a high school diploma. But students could appeal scores of 50-64 if they pass the related course under a proposal expected to come before the state Board of Regents Tuesday. If approved, the change would go into effect immediately, likely allowing more students to meet graduation requirements.

The changes are meant to soften the blow COVID has had on schools across the state this year and would mark the third year in a row that officials have changed rules around New York’s high school exit exams. The pandemic has “continued to have adverse impacts on students and schools,” and that instruction has “varied significantly across the state,” state officials wrote in a memo about the proposed changes.

New York is approaching a “high alert” level for COVID with hospitalizations on the rise, and it’s possible schools could see yet another major disruption to student and staff attendance. During the omicron variant surge after winter break, cases skyrocketed among New York City schools students and staff, disrupting schooling and leaving children at home with little to no instruction.

While attendance improved after that surge, chronic absenteeism in New York City could reach the worst levels since at least 2000 if attendance rates don’t improve.

The temporary changes proposed Monday make it significantly easier for students to appeal failing scores. That may ultimately help to once again boost the state’s graduation rate, which was on the rise before the pandemic but has continued to increase as Regents have been canceled or decoupled from graduation requirements.

Currently, students can appeal failing scores of 60-64, with some exceptions for students learning English as a new language and students with disabilities. But there are a slew of other restrictions: Students can only appeal a score if they’ve failed the exam at least twice, have passed the related course, have received extra academic help in the subject, and are recommended for an exemption by a teacher or department chair. Students can only appeal scores on two of their five Regents exams that are required to graduate. Under the proposal, students must pass the related course but don’t need to meet any of these other requirements through next school year. Their parent or guardian, however, may refuse a granted appeal if they want the student to receive more instruction.

Regents exams have been a long debated topic in New York, one of about a dozen states that administers a high school exit exam. State officials are rethinking the role of the exam and will launch a pilot program looking at new ways to earn a diploma. In recent years, the Regents have made it easier to meet exam requirements by approving more pathways to graduation and lowering the score needed for an appeal.

This will be the third school year that state officials have tweaked rules about Regents exams in response to the pandemic. State officials canceled the exams when the pandemic first hit in the 2019-2020 school year. In the 2020-2021 school year, students were not required to pass exams in order to graduate as they currently are, and most Regents exams were canceled. January exams were canceled this year during the omicron surge.

Regent Roger Tilles, who represents Long Island, criticized the department’s decision to continue with the exams this year and said they are “twisting like a pretzel” to make the exams work instead of rethinking how they are being administered this year.

“Virtually everything on Long Island is being disrupted fairly drastically, and I’ve talked to a number of school superintendents, and their numbers are very high of kids who are out of school right now, and I think we ought to reevaluate how we are re-administering the Regents,” Tilles said.

Asked why the state didn’t instead remove the exams as graduation requirements, a spokesperson pointed to the proposal memo, which said the exams are important “as one of multiple measures of student achievement in the 2021-2022 school year.” The tests can help determine whether students are achieving state learning standards, the memo said, and help state officials determine steps “to foster equity and improve educational opportunities.”

But decades of research shows these exams don’t better-prepare students for life after high school and, in fact, can harm students of color from low-income families.

One Brooklyn high school principal said he expected the state to expand safety net options for students this year, as rates of chronic absenteeism have shot up and COVID has continued to disrupt instruction with many students and staff forced to isolate at home.

But the principal, who requested anonymity to speak freely, questioned the decision to make the exams easier to pass rather than canceling them.

“The breadth of material tested is so large that every teacher who teaches Regents feels that content pressure at the best of times,” the principal said. “This year, so many students are out so many days, the crunch becomes exacerbated.”

Even though the exams will be easier to pass, students still will face pressure to score well above a 50, as low Regents scores typically appear on student transcripts, the principal said.

“On top of all the trauma and challenges they’ve been through over the past two years, I’m not sure what the state is hoping to accomplish by having the Regents exams at all,” he added.

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

NYC to launch two ‘full-time’ virtual schools, top education officials say

2022-05-10T20:27:32+00:00

New York City is planning to launch two fully virtual schools, top education department officials said during a City Council hearing on Tuesday, though key details about how and when they will be created have yet to be revealed.

City officials told local lawmakers that launching the “full-time” virtual schools will be part of the solution to high rates of chronic absenteeism and re-engaging students in the wake of pandemic disruption. About 37% of the city’s K-12 students are on track to be chronically absent, defined as missing at least 10% of the school year, substantially higher than the years before the pandemic.

“I believe that virtual learning is here to stay whether or not we have a pandemic,” schools Chancellor David Banks said. He added that students should be “exposed to the best teaching, the best experiences all over the world.”

Banks has signaled since taking office in January that he’s interested in creating more permanent virtual learning options, even as the city has required all students to attend in person this school year. And, amid the Omicron surge this winter, the schools chief said he hoped to revive virtual learning as many parents kept their children home out of fear of exposure or were stuck in quarantines. But he indicated it was difficult to negotiate with the city’s teachers union and the option never materialized.

Creating separate virtual schools may help overcome one of the key problems with virtual learning during the pandemic: the task fell to individual schools to figure out how to simultaneously staff in-person and remote classrooms. Standalone virtual schools that rely on separate teaching staff would ease that burden, though it’s not clear if that is the model officials are planning.

A virtual model would likely appeal to parents who have lingering fears about the virus or whose children preferred remote instruction. It may also appeal to families whose children have more significant medical issues that make them vulnerable to COVID or other illnesses. The city’s current programming for those students typically only offers an hour a day of instruction.

Many details are unclear about the new virtual schools. City officials did not answer emailed questions about how they will operate, such as which grades will be served, when they would start, or who would staff the program. Nathaniel Styer, a department spokesperson, wrote that the department “will have more to say soon.”

Dick Riley, a spokesperson for the United Federation of Teachers, wrote in an email that the union “had some initial conversations” about the virtual schools “but nothing concrete so far.”

If students are allowed to enroll in separate virtual schools, that could create headaches for some schools and district leaders. Depending on the number of students who are allowed to enroll, the virtual schools could exacerbate enrollment problems at brick-and-mortar campuses, potentially redirecting funding from some campuses and creating more pressure to consolidate or close them. The city’s district schools have seen enrollment slide about 6.4% since the pandemic hit.

Some districts across the country, including Denver, ran virtual programs before the pandemic led to mass closures in March 2020. Denver previously offered a virtual high school option but has since expanded to cover other grades.

Philadelphia and Detroit created virtual academies during the pandemic. Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school district behind New York City, plans to launch new virtual schools this fall. Chalkbeat previously reported that as some districts separated virtual academies from their regular schools, there tended to be less interest in them in part because there were fewer opportunities to interact with their classmates and teachers.

Before the pandemic, New York City experimented with remote learning on a small scale, including a pilot program intended to expand access to advanced coursework for students attending 15 schools in the Bronx.

Still, the education department has a mixed track record when it comes to creating virtual options. In the summer of 2020, the city scrambled to scale up a virtual summer program built off a centralized platform. It ran into serious technical difficulties, and some teachers struggled to connect with students they had never met in person.

Tom Liam Lynch, who runs the website InsideSchools, and worked with the education department to implement a digital learning platform a decade ago, said he’s confident the education department can pull off a virtual option despite previous stumbles.

The previous administration failed to create a virtual teaching strategy, he said, which hobbled remote instruction during the pandemic. Lynch noted that quickly scaling up a soup-to-nuts virtual school would likely take time, but he said even smaller-scale efforts could prove useful, including giving students access to a broader range of courses, or helping those who have struggled in traditional schools.

“Post-COVID, being able to successfully learn online is just going to be an ongoing part of what it means to be a student, what it means to be a worker, what it means to be civically engaged in society,” he said. “I think the DOE is 100% capable of doing this well.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

New York officials vote to scrap edTPA teacher certification exam

2022-04-12T19:17:02+00:00

Prospective teachers in New York state will no longer have to take the controversial edTPA, a national assessment that some have criticized as being a barrier to diversifying and growing the teacher workforce.

New York’s Board of Regents, the state’s education policymaking body, voted unanimously Tuesday to remove the multi-part exam as a requirement for earning a teaching certificate. The change goes into effect April 27.

Members of the board did not discuss the matter before approving the change. But several Regents applauded the idea when it was first proposed in December, with New York City-based Regent Kathleen Cashin calling it “a very good move.”

The edTPA, which comes with a $300 fee and is assessed by Pearson, involves multiple parts. Teacher candidates must provide a portfolio of work, video recordings of their classroom instruction, their lesson plans, analyses of their students’ progress, and their reflections from classroom practices.

The pandemic helped drive the state’s decision to scrap the requirement, and follows reforms in recent years to teacher certification in New York. New Jersey educators have also recently pushed to get rid of the test.

During the public health crisis, state education officials have allowed teaching candidates to take a written exam in lieu of the edTPA, and teacher prep program leaders embraced the change. That led many of them to ask for the removal of the test altogether, William Murphy, the state education department’s deputy commissioner of higher education, told the Regents in December.

Program leaders reported that their students were more focused on completing edTPA requirements than learning from their student teaching experiences, according to Murphy. It was also challenging for them to manage the multiple components of the exam.

In lieu of the exam, teacher preparation programs will be required by Sept. 1, 2023, to create their own “multi-measure assessment” that stacks up with New York’s teaching standards.

Union hails end of test, but questions remain

Critics have long worried that the exam shut out candidates of color from the teaching workforce, which faces a shortage. In 2017, New York officials reported that Black test takers were nearly twice as likely to fail the edTPA compared to their white or Hispanic peers. State officials have declined to share more recent test data.

The state’s teacher union celebrated the change, which has advocated against the test since New York first introduced the exam in 2014. Jolene DiBrango, the union’s executive vice president, said the union has long heard complaints about the exam as overly burdensome and led some candidates to quit teacher preparation programs.

This is a “critical time” to ax the exam as the state faces a teacher shortage, DiBrango said. Union figures show that enrollment in state teaching programs has decreased by more than half since 2009.

“We have a great deal of respect and trust in our teacher prep programs across New York state,” DiBrango said. “We have seen in this state that one-size-fits-all doesn’t really fit anyone.”

But Dan Goldhaber, a researcher who helped study the effects of the edTPA in Washington state, noted that allowing teacher prep programs to create their own assessments will result in a patchwork of different requirements across the state. So it’s unclear, he said, that such a policy change will result in better qualified teachers.

“Ultimately, I think that we need to try to judge what is happening in teacher preparation based on the impact that teachers, who are prepared, have on student outcomes,” Goldhaber told Chalkbeat when New York first proposed the change in December.

It’s up to the state to try to understand whether these requirements “appear to be beneficial to students,” he said.

Goldhaber’s 2016 study found that Hispanic teacher candidates in Washington state were more than three times as likely to fail the exam as white candidates.

That same study showed mixed evidence of a link between higher edTPA scores and effectiveness in instruction, measured by students’ scores in state reading and math tests. While there was a correlation between higher edTPA scores and student scores in math, there was no such correlation with reading scores.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Seen in school: How COVID shaped two years of education

2022-03-29T12:00:00+00:00

The world was warned about a rash of pneumonia-like infections clustered in Wuhan, China, about a week into 2020. By March of that same year, the novel coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

Since then, COVID has demanded a wide range of responses, from stay-at-home orders and shuttered institutions to mask mandates and testing protocols. More than two years into the global health crisis, our nation’s schools — teachers, staff, and the students and families they serve — are still dealing with challenges.

Chalkbeat journalists have documented the difficulties school communities have faced and are still facing. We’ve shared with our readers the chaos of school closures and re-openings, the mental health struggles of grieving and isolated families, and the staff shortages that many districts are confronting. We’ve also shared stories of resilience, success, and joy.

Here is a collection of our stories and photographs documenting the lived experiences of school communities during COVID.

Newark: One teacher called, texted, and trudged through the snow to reach her students

Joicki Floyd and her daughter Donnell practice learning numbers on a chalkboard wall in their kitchen during Floyd’s break from classes.

Joicki Floyd, a ninth grade English teacher at Weequahic High School in Newark, watched COVID tear through the city where she was born. Floyd, 45, saw the disease strike down her neighbors and colleagues, adding to the list of COVID-19 casualties who were disproportionately Black and Hispanic.

Floyd kept teaching. She gave lessons over video, responded to students’ texts and emails late into the night, and trudged through the snow to track down teenagers who went missing. It became clear is that the skill she had sharpened over 20 years of teaching — her gift for connecting with students and drawing out their inner strength — had equipped her for this all-consuming crisis.

“This is what I do,” she said. “If I didn’t do it, I would feel frustrated. I would feel empty. I would feel like I’d be cheating my community and the children.”

Memphis and Detroit: Freshmen adjust to remote learning

Memphis high school student Jalan Clemmons (left) in his living room during a break from virtual classes. Detroit high school student King Bethel (right) was motivated after lessons about the history of redlining in his city.

Memphis student Jalan Clemmons struggled with remote learning during the pandemic. At one point, he discovered he was missing more than 70 assignments, but found a way to catch up after two months.

King Bethel, also a freshman and a talented singer and student at Detroit School of Arts, is used to being noticed for his voice. Inspired by a lesson about the history of redlining in Detroit, he used that voice to become a leader at the School of Arts, working on a speech for a public speaking competition called “Project Soapbox”

“I wasn’t trying to entertain,” he said. “I was trying to teach.”

Michigan: State’s ratings add stress for child care providers

A preschooler rides around on a scooter during playtime at Little Scholars child care center in Detroit.

Child care providers such as Linda Byrd and Shirley Wright were outraged that they didn’t get a reprieve from Michigan’s rating system during the pandemic, even as the state sought to pause accountability systems for K-12 schools. The state handed out fewer ratings overall — and fewer high ratings — to child care providers, our reporting found.

“My bills are not going to change because of this rating, but my money did,” said Wright, director of Little Scholars child care centers in Detroit, whose star rating dropped from a four to a three during the pandemic. “If education starts at birth, why do we treat early childhood education like it’s not education?”

Brooklyn: Internship pays students to tutor their peers

Alandinio Cineas works through an algebra problem with his tutor Chahima Dieudonne at Brooklyn High School for Excellence and Equity in Canarsie.

Brooklyn high school freshman Alandinio Cineas was stumped by an algebra assignment asking him to write and graph an equation showing how many different pieces of fruit he could buy with $15.

He shared the problem on his computer screen with senior Chahima Dieudonne. The students were in the same room, but divided by a cubicle and logged into a virtual meeting. With masks pulled over their noses, they were close enough to hear each other speak but kept their distance to limit the chance of spreading COVID.

Dieudonne read the problem a few times and thought out loud, in both English and Creole. Then she and Cineas spent the next hour figuring out his math homework together.

Dieudonne is one of roughly 15 students at Brooklyn Community High School for Excellence and Equity who is paid through a school internship program to provide one-on-one peer tutoring to students like Cineas who need extra help.

Chicago: Parents help their children learn to read

Leslie Trejo and her daughter Ariadne at Carole Robertson Center for Learning in Chicago. Trejo, like many Chicago parents, found herself spending extra time trying to teach her daughter the foundations of reading during virtual learning.

Leslie Trejo, like most parents, doesn’t like playing the bad guy. But she accepted the role, if it gets her kindergarten daughter the extra reading practice she needs.

At Trejo’s home in Little Village, that means taking 15 minutes on Saturday afternoon to practice memorizing words such as “of,” “to,” and “was” — all while asking her third grade daughter to play nearby. The lesson: Fun comes after flashcards.

When COVID-19 forced schooling into the home, Chicago families like the Trejos found themselves suddenly on the front lines: watching, coaxing, teaching, and sometimes, throwing up their hands in frustration as their children tried to learn the basic building blocks of reading.

Chicago: COVID widened education gaps for boys of color

Nathaniel Martinez bikes to school through the Northwest Side of Chicago. There is evidence that the 2020-21 school year has taken a greater toll on Black and Latino boys.

As the promise of spring hung over Chicago, three teenage boys tussled with insomnia, sifting through the fallout of a pandemic year’s interlocking crises.

Here and across the country there is growing evidence that the 2020-21 school year has hit Black and Latino boys — young men like Derrick Magee, Nathaniel Martinez and Leonel Gonzalez— harder than other students. Amid rising gun violence, a national reckoning over race, bitter school reopening battles and a deadly virus that took the heaviest toll on Black and Latino communities, the year has tested not only these teens, but also the school systems that have historically failed many of them.

NYC, Newark: A 360-degree look COVID’s impact on school communities

Children and parents work on a community garden in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of New York City.

Roseville Community Charter School students practice social distancing as they leave a music class.

Chalkbeat, in partnership with Univision 41, took a deep dive into two school communities: New York City’s P.S. 89, and Newark’s Roseville Community Charter School. These two schools, both in neighborhoods devastated by the COVID pandemic, became lifelines for the communities they serve even as their staff dealt with the same challenges and loss as their families.

Through the experiences of educators, families, and staff, we captured how these communities adapted to the upheaval brought about by the pandemic, and how they laid the groundwork for recovery and a return to school buildings.

Detroit: My senior year in pictures

Detroit student photographer Caria Taylor documented her journey through the pandemic, reflecting on milestone moments like her prom and graduation.

Through pictures and an original poem, titled “Fantasy Turns Into Reality,” Caria Taylor, a graduating senior at Detroit’s Cass Tech High School, gave a first-hand account of her journey in three parts: watching her creative voice blossom at the height of the pandemic, experiencing the joy of prom and graduation, and returning to some level of normalcy as she and her friends spend time together before they venture into adulthood.

Chicago: Graduation becomes a more significant milestone

(Left) Whitney M. Young Magnet High School graduate Elijah Warren during the school’s graduation at Chicago’s Soldier Field. (Right) Parents celebrate their graduating children at Simon Youth Academy’s graduation in Indianapolis.

Natasha Walker, Linda McDowell-Stagg Jr., and Reverend Earl Stagg Jr. celebrate their niece and granddaughter Nairobi Toombs as she crosses the stage during her graduation ceremony from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School.

“You made it through the pandemic,” Whitney Young Magnet School Principal Joyce Kenner told her students during their graduation on Chicago’s Soldier Field. “You can make it through anything.”

Across the country, graduating seniors from the Class of 2021 overcame unprecedented obstacles in receiving their diplomas. Our reporters documented these milestone events through students like Whitney Young Magnet senior Elijah Warren, and the graduating class of Indianapolis’ alternative high school Simon Youth Academy.

The Comeback: Aurora, Chicago, Detroit, New York, and Newark return to school

The comeback to the nation’s schools in the Fall of 2021 was a period of both excitement and worry in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

Chicago siblings Mila and Mateo leave for their first day of school at Talcott Elementary School after spending a year learning from their home.

Over a year after COVID closed school buildings, students returned to in-person learning. This comeback brought mixed feelings to many families, who felt both relief and trepidation amidst the uncertainty of the pandemic.

Our journalists watched this return unfold in several districts around the nation, seeing the joy of children, educators, parents, and politicians as they welcomed learners back to the classroom. For some students, it was a return to a routine they hadn’t experienced for over 18 months. For other students, it would be their first time in a school building.

Newark: Bus driver shortage leaves students with disabilities behind

Maryah Santos (center) colors a picture alongside her cousin, Isabella Santos (left), and her mother, Shannon Lutz-Santos at her home.

Maryah Santos, 14, listened as her mom tried to explain why she was stuck at home once again. School had started in early September and still no bus was headed to their home in Newark’s east ward.

“I love school so much, mommy,” Maryah said.

“I know, you love school,” Shannon Lutz told her daughter, whose intellectual disability makes it difficult to grasp why the bus hasn’t come and why she’s been home instead of reconnecting with teachers and classmates at school.

In New Jersey, where no virtual learning option was offered for the 2021-22 school year, 7,000 students like Maryah were either left without bus service or affected by last-minute changes to transportation caused by a shortage of school bus drivers that hit its peak in September, just as schools were reopening.

Colorado: Two Hispanic brothers wanted to go to college. Only one made it.

Luis Hernandez looks out the window on the train to MSU Denver. He dreams of one day having the ability to own a house with a big kitchen and living room for him and his family to live in.

Jimy and Luis Hernandez’s alarm wakes them before the sun rises.

The brothers try to move quietly about their parents’ northeast Denver home so they don’t disturb their siblings.

Luis, 18, might watch the news or help his mom prepare lunch before they head to the toner cartridge factory where he works part-time to help pay for college. He’s enrolled at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Jimy, 21, usually skips the kitchen as he hustles to get ready for his full-time job paving asphalt for a construction company. He wanted to go to college, but couldn’t navigate the path there.

The brothers’ divergent paths highlight the challenges Hispanic men face in getting into college — and in getting through.

Denver: How schools prioritize social-emotional learning

Denver Public Schools is requiring each school in the district to offer 20 minutes of daily social-emotional learning to help their students’ mental health.

The preschoolers in Natalie Soto-Mehle’s class have been talking about feelings.

“I’ve got some little cards with pictures, and we’re going to do a game with these,” Soto-Mehle, a teacher at Trevista at Horace Mann elementary school, explained to the 3-, 4-, and 5-year olds sitting on the rug. “But, before we do, we’re going to sing a new song.”

To the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down,” she sang:

I have feelings, yes I do. Yes, I do. Yes, I do.

My body tells me how I feel,

Feelings in my body.

Lessons like this are what schools call social-emotional learning, which teaches students to be emotionally resilient, form supportive relationships, and develop healthy identities. As Denver Public Schools transition back to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the district is requiring each school to offer 20 minutes of daily social-emotional learning to help students face mental health challenges brought on by two years of pandemic living.

NYC: Parents accused of educational neglect for keeping their children home

Viviana Echavarria speaks with her kids about their upcoming return to in-person classes at her home in the Bronx. Viviana and her husband were among the parents of New York City school students that didn’t feel it was safe for their children to return to in-person learning during the ongoing public health crisis.

After spending last year fully remote, Viviana Echavarria’s two teenagers were excited to return to Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy and even went back-to-school shopping.

But then the Bronx mom and her husband decided to keep their two high schoolers home until their 11-year-old could get vaccinated.

Still, Echavarria was stunned when her husband called late last month while she was at work, as a director of operations for a nursing home, to tell her that an ACS caseworker was at their door. He hasn’t returned to work yet in order to stay home with their three school-aged children and 6-month-old baby.

When New York City opened its schools this fall for in-person learning, with no option for virtual instruction, families across the five boroughs opted to keep their children home. Families like the Echevarrias worried about the health of their children and vulnerable loved ones, and remained unconvinced it was safe to return to school.

Philly: Reading lessons at the laundromat

Iris Hernandez, a reading captain with Read by 4th, helps children to read “DJ’s Busy Day” at The Laundry Cafe in North Philadelphia.

On a cold Saturday afternoon, Iris Hernandez and Carmen Colon were helping six Morales children through the letters, sounds, and words in the book “DJ’s Busy Day,” about a bunny and his fun-filled adventures in ordinary places: the grocery store, on the bus, in his home. Their lessons took place in a local laundromat.

Hernandez and Colon are reading captains working with Global Citizen, which has been leading a community mobilization in partnership with the Philadelphia Public Library’s Read by 4th initiative, a citywide drive to help all children read proficiently by the end of third grade. Some research shows that early reading proficiency is linked to high school graduation.

The city still has a long way to go toward its goal. Before the pandemic, standardized tests showed that only about a third of children in district schools read at grade level by fourth grade.

Philadelphia: One school’s new normal in its second COVID winter

Ruth Llorens looks on as one of her kindergarten students hangs her jacket in her cubby at Cayuga Elementary School in Philadelphia.

Nearly two years into the pandemic, COVID often blends into the background at Cayuga Elementary School in North Philadelphia.

Other times, COVID is painfully obvious. In January, a little boy told kindergarten teacher Ruth Llorens he missed his uncle, who’d died from the virus over winter break.

“I just kind of listened to him more than anything else,” she said. “Really, he just wanted to talk about his uncle and what they used to do.”

Such is the year so far. Routine classroom moments are punctuated by reminders of COVID’s fallout, ranging from sadness and fatigue to the recognition that some students missed out on lots of learning over the past two years. That includes academics, of course, but also classroom routines.

Chicago: One high school’s year of uncertainty

Keshaun Arnold (center right) jumps for the possession of the ball against King offense during a varsity basketball game against King College Preparatory High School at Richards Career Academy in Chicago.

For schools across the country, this school year was supposed to be the moment to recoup academic ground lost during the pandemic and tend to the outbreak’s traumas before high school careers and lives got derailed. It was supposed to be a time to start reinventing public education for teens like Richards High School senior Keshaun Arnold and the other students Richards serves: half of them Black, another half Latino, almost all from low-income families, a third learning English as a second language, and another third without a stable place to live.

It hasn’t turned out that way.

At Richards, a tough comeback has overwhelmed the students and staff. Attendance is down. Behavioral issues are up. COVID has waned and surged, exploding any semblance of certainty.

Such setbacks have played out across the country, in district after district, at school after school. Here and elsewhere, amid a race to re-engage students in learning, the desire to find new ways of approaching school has collided with the need to just make it through another trying week.

Detroit launched its own virtual school. Here’s how it’s doing.

2022-03-11T12:00:00+00:00

Virtual learning has been part of student life since the pandemic began in 2020. So when the Detroit district elected to open its own virtual school this year, Victoria Haynesworth decided it was a no-brainer to enroll her son.

“My son’s safety ... that was the moving force for me,” she said of her 14-year-old. “It had everything to do with the pandemic from A to Z. I knew that I needed something else besides in person.”

Ahead of this school year, school officials were banking on the virtual option becoming a permanent fixture for students who thrive in the online space. The district also hoped the virtual school would accommodate families’ health and safety concerns.

But as the academic year unfolds, even as the Detroit Public Schools Community District has committed to improving the program, families are finding that being enrolled in the district’s virtual school hasn’t always been easy.

Developing the virtual school has been a goal for Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who plans to spend $5.1 million in federal COVID relief money to hire more staff. That would address parent concerns from throughout the school year that virtual classrooms are too full and some classes are not staffed on too many days. Other parents have complained that the program hasn’t provided enough services for their children with special education needs.

Most recently Vitti said the district is considering limiting enrollment to grades 4-12 in the 2022-23 school year, as school officials have questioned whether the virtual school is the right space for early literacy in pre-kindergarten to third grade.

Accounting for the varied needs of virtual school families

Aliya Moore enrolled her 11-year-old daughter into the district’s virtual program due to safety concerns. Moore said her daughter has not had a consistent social studies teacher or substitute since late October. In her math class, her instructor left for the last weeks of the semester to take care of her mother who contracted COVID.

“The rest of her classes, she doesn’t really have a solid elective. Her schedule says art, but there has been no art,” she added.

Detroit is not an outlier. Parents in school districts across the country have complained about inadequate staffing, few learning accommodations, and a lack of extracurriculars for remote students.

Bree Dusseault, an analyst at the Center on Reinventing Public Education, says there was a trend this fall among larger school districts who created permanent remote learning options as “a function of responding to parent demands and trying to recapture enrollment … not necessarily as a longer term vision for what a good remote learning environment could look like for kids.”

“We know that there are examples of high quality remote learning, but a good remote learning environment needs to be done with intentionality and based on research, and what we’ve learned around best practices,” she said.

Michael Barbour, a professor at Touro University California who studies virtual instruction, said districts could better improve their remote options by developing multiple learning models that can accommodate the differing needs of students enrolled in virtual learning.

“You could easily set up a program where at least you have two options where you could have students that learn 100% at home or you could have students that learn 100% online, but do it in a classroom setting where there’s a facilitator or teacher that’s there to help them … sort of muddle their way through some of the content,” Barbour said.

After an increase in interest from families in the weeks leading up to the start of school, the Detroit school district sought to hire more teachers and staff for the virtual school. Fall enrollment began at 1,900 students but ballooned to 2,100 students going into the spring semester.

An estimated 260 students have opted out of the district’s required weekly COVID testing, which means they will be transferred to the virtual school. One hundred thirty objecting students from kindergarten to grade 5 were transferred to the virtual school by the week of Feb. 28, with high school students projected to move over by the end of this week.

Haynesworth has talked to her fair share of parents who were on the fence about enrolling their children in the virtual school in the fall and ahead of the second semester.

“I think a lot of them are really thinking about safety, as well as wanting to know that everything that needs to be implemented is going to be implemented through virtual school,” she said.

‘It isn’t perfect … however it is effective’

DPSCD Virtual School was not the first school of choice for Francheska Gonzalez’s son, Luis, but she says he’s learned to adapt to the remote environment after she opted not to send him into a classroom because he has problems with asthma.

“Attending remotely takes more discipline; however I feel my son is best supported in this environment,” Gonzalez said. “It has made him more self-sufficient, organized and disciplined. It isn’t perfect and flawless, however it is effective.”

But some parents differ. Marquita Andrews’ son, who is dyslexic and has learning accommodations, struggled with the district’s virtual school this past semester.

In an in-person classroom setting, Andrews said her son would be in a resource room all day and receive audio-visual lessons to help him with reading, as well as timely reminders from a resource to take his required medication. Most virtual school days, he’s not reminded to take his medication. Some days he gets frustrated and logs off. Recently he told his mom that he’d rather study for a high school equivalency exam.

“He was excited when the school year started but at this point, he’s over it,” said Andrews. “He’s expressed to me, “I’m tired of asking for help and I’m not getting it.”

Vitti said that the district has tried to be clear that it can only accommodate students with learning disabilities who have IEPs that have been reviewed ahead of virtual school enrollment.

“Some of the educational, behavioral, and physical needs of particular students cannot be met in a virtual learning environment,” he said.

School districts across the country have had to wrestle with the challenges of offering complete services to students with individualized education plans, known as IEPs, that require complex accommodations.

“I think that remote schools can start to get into a gray zone of how much they can provide those services,” Dussealt said, adding that districts could theoretically allow remote students who need in-person accommodations to access services at a central location.

The road ahead for virtual schools

Joe Friedhoff, vice president of online learning non-profit Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, says that the challenges school districts have faced so far with virtual learning are not damning, and do not define remote instruction as a whole.

“What the pandemic brought about is a form of virtual learning, but it’s really a lot more like an emergency learning,” Friedhoff said. “What kids got in schools and parents got exposed to was as best as we could do with very little training and very little preparation in most cases.”

In Detroit, some parents have complained that their students don’t have access to the same courses or extracurriculars as in-person students do. Vitti said the district is “exploring the possibility of” advanced courses and more electives in the future. For the time being, the school will focus on its core classes and support for exceptional student education, or ESE, students. Other resources such as after-school tutoring, he added, may be offered if teachers are willing to work after long days of screen time.

“Our goal was to get the school off the ground without knowing how many students actually would enroll,” Vitti said. “As enrollment settles then we will expand programming if student numbers support the expansion.”

Friedhoff said there’s a long road ahead for school district leaders to design and implement high quality online learning options that balance the flexibility of remote instruction with the academic standards of in-person learning.

Moore’s biggest concern is about the learning gaps she perceives her daughter will have coming out of this school year. The district recently offered her a seat on an advisory council, which she hopes she can parlay into ensuring more services are offered.

“I’m here for results,” she said. “If we are going to be a part of this, and to really lay the platform for how this virtual setting is going to be permanently, I’m with that.”

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Joe Friedhoff’s name. Joe Friedhoff is the vice president of Michigan Virtual.

Bill to resurrect Tennessee school vouchers dies in legislative committee

2022-03-09T19:35:46+00:00

A House subcommittee has narrowly killed a bill that could have revived Tennessee’s controversial school voucher program regardless of how the state’s highest court rules this year on the state’s overturned school voucher law.

The bill aimed to change eligibility requirements for students receiving public money to pay for private school tuition under the 2019 education savings account law that squeaked through the legislature but was halted by a judge before the program could launch.

The new legislation failed 5-4 Tuesday, despite a rare subcommittee appearance by Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who tried to tip the scales when a key voucher supporter, Rep. Glen Casada of Franklin, was absent. Three other Republicans — Reps. Kirk Haston of Lobelville, Chris Hurt of Halls, and John Ragan of Oak Ridge — broke ranks and voted with two Democrats against the GOP bill.

The proposal, by Rep. Michael Curcio of Dickson and Sen. Mike Bell of Riceville, would have opened eligibility to students who are either zoned to the state’s school turnaround district or whose school systems don’t offer in-person learning for a full 180 days for each of the next three school years because of the COVID pandemic.

The voucher law was overturned because it applied only to students in Memphis and Nashville schools without giving their local governments or voters a say, which two lower courts said violates the state constitution’s so-called “home rule” provision.

If the bill became law, it could have addressed constitutional questions about statewide application through the COVID provision while still likely affecting students in only Memphis and Nashville, since those are Tennessee’s only cities with low-performing schools taken over by the state-run Achievement School District.

Rep. John Clemmons, a Nashville who voted against the bill, noted that the state’s appeal of the voucher law is pending before the Tennessee Supreme Court, which recently heard oral arguments centering on questions about whether home rule applies in this case.

“It seems like we’re trying to clean that up and try to avoid some kind of adverse judicial determination for an inherently unconstitutional piece of legislation,” Clemmons said. “So I guess the true intent of this legislation is problematic.”

Curcio dodged questions about the bill’s intent.

“If this were to address that, I think that would be kind of a periphery issue,” Curcio responded. “We’re just trying to change the criteria of who’s eligible.”

A similar bill by Curcio and Bell cleared the Senate Education Committee in January. However, the sponsors started over with new legislation when other constitutional questions emerged about their first proposal. Curcio did not respond Wednesday when asked if he planned to pursue a House committee vote on his earlier bill.

Tuesday’s vote came as Gov. Bill Lee, who pushed for the voucher law, is seeking to shift Tennessee to a student-based school funding formula. The model would calculate education funding on a student-by-student basis, making it easier for Tennessee to start a private school voucher program. However, Lee has said vouchers have nothing to do with the need for a new funding formula that is simpler to understand and based on the needs of students over systems.

Rep. Harold Love, another Nashville Democrat who voted against Curcio’s bill, said changing voucher eligibility when the state is considering funding reform is problematic.

“I would hope that maybe we would hold off until we get this new funding formula under our belts and understand it,” he said.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent who covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Bucking national trends, NYC’s 2021 graduation rates inched up as state eased requirements

2022-02-16T21:40:29+00:00

You can find your school’s graduation rate using the searchable table at the bottom of this story

Graduation rates in New York City rose to 81% last school year, about 2 percentage points higher than the previous year, state officials announced Wednesday.

Across the state, 86% of students graduated — roughly 1 percentage point higher than the previous school year.

New York’s data comes as graduation rates have dipped in at least 20 states.

For the second year in a row, as the pandemic disrupted teaching and learning, state education officials made it easier to graduate in the 2020-2021 school year. They canceled most Regents exams and allowed students to be exempt from taking the exams to graduate, since many students were learning exclusively from home. Instead, students had to pass the course tied to the normally required Regents exam.

In New York City, about 60% of students remained fully remote by the end of the school year, while the rest spent most of the year splitting their weeks between learning from home and inside a classroom.

With two years of school disruptions, many students who graduated in 2021 did not have the opportunity to take Regents exams during their junior or senior years, which is when many of the exit exams are typically taken, state officials said. Because of that, a total of 44,545 New York City seniors — or nearly three-quarters — were granted at least one waiver last year for the exams, compared with roughly 8,000 seniors in 2020. Statewide, 82% of seniors were granted an exemption.

Betty Rosa, the state education department’s commissioner, told reporters that canceling the Regents exams was “likely a factor” in the graduation rate increase. But, she added, the magnitude of the effect “can not be determined, as many of these affected students would have passed the Regents exam” had the tests still been offered.

Along with rising graduation rates, dropout rates dipped. Five percent of city students dropped out — 1 percentage point less than last school year — compared to 4.2% statewide.

‘Identify where inequities exist’

Graduation rates of New York City’s Asian students far outpaced their peers. Roughly 91% of Asian students graduated within four years, compared with 82% of white students, 79% percent of Black students and 78% of Latino students.

White students saw graduation rates dip by 2 percentage points year-over-year, unlike their Asian, Black and Latino peers, who saw rates increase.

Students learning English as a new language and children with disabilities continued to graduate at significantly lower rates than their peers — but there was improvement compared to last year.

English learners posted a graduation rate of 60%, more than 14 percentage points higher than last year. The big jump might be due to the cancellation of the English Regents exam, state officials said. Additionally, students who may no longer have met “English Language Learner” status could not test out of the program in 2020, since the exam was canceled that year, and was not required for remote learners last year. Former English language learners tend to post graduation rates that are higher than students citywide, and these students may have skewed this year’s results.

About 58% of students with disabilities earned their diplomas, 5 percentage points higher than 2020.

While graduation rates were highest in Staten Island and Queens at about 85%, they grew the most in the Bronx, to 77% up from 73% in 2020. About 82% of Manhattan seniors graduated, and 78% of Brooklyn’s did.

“Graduation rates are one metric we use to identify where inequities exist so we can better support our students and education communities,” Board of Regents Chancellor Lester W. Young Jr. said in a statement. “Every student can succeed when given the support to do so. Until we address them, inequities will continue to diminish opportunities for too many students.”

‘Focused on graduating’

The state is planning to administer Regents exams this June and August, even though officials canceled the exams in January amid a spike in coronavirus cases, Rosa said.

“We’ve been having all of these conversations, with superintendents, with principals, all of our stakeholders,” she said. “And right now, the Regents exam is still on schedule.”

The lack of Regents exams helped Clementina Sarpong, who graduated last spring as valedictorian from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. She received an exemption her junior year for her Chemistry Regents and another waiver last year for Spanish, which she needed to earn an Advanced Regents diploma.

Teachers also seemed more flexible. For example, Sarpong’s teacher for Advanced Placement biology would give students more time to complete assignments when needed, she said. However, some of her peers said it was tough to grasp complicated concepts through remote learning. They felt it was harder to ask questions in a Zoom chat room, compared with raising their hand in class.

Clementina Sarpong

The isolation of remote learning took a “mental toll,” Sarpong said. She and her fellow student government board members tried to arrange various student events at the start of last year, but the administration denied most of their proposals out of concerns for COVID safety or lacking the funds to put on events, Sarpong said.

“It was a bunch of continuous ‘no’s,’ where we just gave up and focused on graduating,” said the 18-year-old, who now attends a 7-year program at the CUNY College of Medicine to earn her bachelor’s and medical degrees.

The Board of Regents is continuing long-delayed discussions on how to reconfigure New York graduation requirements and have created a blue ribbon commission to study potential changes, but tweaks wouldn’t be considered until at least 2024.

That discussion had been stalled from March 2020 until last fall as state officials responded to the public health crisis. In October, state officials announced a pilot program for alternate ways of earning a diploma that don’t involve taking a Regents exam.

Search for your school’s graduation rate below.

School	# Total Cohort	% Graduated
A PHILIP RANDOLPH CAMPUS HIGH SCHOOL	338	83.4%
A-TECH HIGH SCHOOL	76	85.5%
ABRAHAM LINCOLN HIGH SCHOOL	399	86.2%
ACADEMY FOR CAREERS IN TELEVISION AND FI	144	100.0%
ACADEMY FOR COLLEGE PREP & CAREER EXPLOR	59	81.4%
ACADEMY FOR CONSERVATION AND THE ENVIRON	65	98.5%
ACADEMY FOR EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP	64	84.4%
ACADEMY FOR HEALTH CAREERS	55	89.1%
ACADEMY FOR LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGY	77	100.0%
ACADEMY FOR SCHOLARSHIP AND ENTREPRENEUR	88	79.5%
ACADEMY FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING	109	92.7%
ACADEMY FOR YOUNG WRITERS	76	92.1%
ACADEMY OF AMERICAN STUDIES	293	99.0%
ACADEMY OF FINANCE AND ENTERPRISE	190	97.4%
ACADEMY OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM	62	80.6%
ACADEMY OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY	107	90.7%
ACADEMY OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY - A COLLEG	101	76.2%
ACADEMY OF URBAN PLANNING AND ENGINEERIN	55	100.0%
ACHIEVEMENT FIRST BROWNSVILLE CHARTER SC	77	71.4%
ACHIEVEMENT FIRST CROWN HEIGHTS CHARTER	106	87.7%
ACHIEVEMENT FIRST EAST NEW YORK CHARTER	87	95.4%
ALFRED E SMITH CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUC	101	94.1%
ALL CITY LEADERSHIP SECONDARY SCHOOL	64	98.4%
AMERICAN DREAM CHARTER SCHOOL	74	85.1%
AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE & ENGLISH SECONDA	31	93.5%
ANTONIA PANTOJA PREPARATORY ACADEMY - A	60	86.7%
ARCHIMEDES ACADEMY FOR MATH SCIENCE AND	79	67.1%
ART AND DESIGN HIGH SCHOOL	328	93.0%
ARTURO A SCHOMBURG SATELLITE ACADEMY BRO	87	23.0%
ASPIRATIONS DIPLOMA PLUS HIGH SCHOOL	56	16.1%
ASTOR COLLEGIATE ACADEMY	113	78.8%
AUGUST MARTIN HIGH SCHOOL	80	95.0%
AVIATION CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION	459	98.5%
BACCALAUREATE SCHOOL FOR GLOBAL EDUCATIO	116	97.4%
BARD HIGH SCHOOL EARLY COLLEGE	161	95.0%
BARD HIGH SCHOOL EARLY COLLEGE QUEENS	160	98.1%
BARUCH COLLEGE CAMPUS HIGH SCHOOL	127	99.2%
BAYSIDE HIGH SCHOOL	706	99.4%
BEACON HIGH SCHOOL	382	98.2%
BEDFORD ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	83	97.6%
BELMONT PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	91	75.8%
BENJAMIN BANNEKER ACADEMY	191	95.8%
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL FOR FINANC	106	92.5%
BENJAMIN N CARDOZO HIGH SCHOOL	799	93.4%
BOERUM HILL SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL STU	52	92.3%
BOYS AND GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL	76	81.6%
BRONX ACADEMY FOR SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (	81	81.5%
BRONX ACADEMY OF HEALTH CAREERS	83	92.8%
BRONX AEROSPACE HIGH SCHOOL	79	78.5%
BRONX ARENA HIGH SCHOOL	43	23.3%
BRONX BRIDGES HIGH SCHOOL	102	89.2%
BRONX CAREER AND COLLEGE PREPARATORY HIG	65	80.0%
BRONX CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS	110	94.5%
BRONX COLLABORATIVE HIGH SCHOOL	144	88.2%
BRONX COLLEGIATE ACADEMY	86	94.2%
BRONX COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	56	19.6%
BRONX COMPASS HIGH SCHOOL	102	87.3%
BRONX DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ACADEMY	84	72.6%
BRONX EARLY COLLEGE ACADEMY FOR TEACHING	66	98.5%
BRONX ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY	81	79.0%
BRONX ENVISION ACADEMY	102	86.3%
BRONX HAVEN HIGH SCHOOL	51	25.5%
BRONX HEALTH SCIENCES HIGH SCHOOL	60	98.3%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW AND COMMUNITY	84	97.6%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL FOR MEDICAL SCIENCE	70	81.4%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE VISUAL ARTS	123	81.3%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL FOR WRITING AND COMMUN	89	73.0%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS	63	81.0%
BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF SCIENCE (THE)	740	100.0%
BRONX INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	98	88.8%
BRONX LAB SCHOOL	88	79.5%
BRONX LATIN SCHOOL	75	93.3%
BRONX LEADERSHIP ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	123	80.5%
BRONX LEADERSHIP ACADEMY II HIGH SCHOOL	144	80.6%
BRONX PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOOL	88	81.8%
BRONX REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	53	20.8%
BRONX RIVER HIGH SCHOOL	100	83.0%
BRONX SCHOOL FOR LAW GOVERNMENT AND JUS	115	83.5%
BRONX SCHOOL OF LAW AND FINANCE	100	83.0%
BRONX STUDIO SCHOOL FOR WRITERS AND ARTI	82	81.7%
BRONX THEATRE HIGH SCHOOL	76	88.2%
BRONXDALE HIGH SCHOOL	124	81.5%
BRONXWOOD PREPARATORY ACADEMY (THE)	86	84.9%
BROOKLYN ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	53	11.3%
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF GLOBAL FINANCE (THE)	23	82.6%
BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND THE ENVI	92	82.6%
BROOKLYN ASCEND CHARTER SCHOOL	88	72.7%
BROOKLYN BRIDGE ACADEMY	68	20.6%
BROOKLYN COLLABORATIVE STUDIES	94	91.5%
BROOKLYN COLLEGE ACADEMY	153	97.4%
BROOKLYN COLLEGIATE: A COLLEGE BOARD SCH	72	88.9%
BROOKLYN COMMUNITY ARTS AND MEDIA HIGH S	128	86.7%
BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL FOR EXCEL	51	80.4%
BROOKLYN DEMOCRACY ACADEMY	64	28.1%
BROOKLYN EMERGING LEADERS ACADEMY CHARTE	52	96.2%
BROOKLYN FRONTIERS HIGH SCHOOL	77	37.7%
BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW AND TECHNOL	109	82.6%
BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL FOR LEADERSHIP AND	61	19.7%
BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL OF THE ARTS	217	93.5%
BROOKLYN INSTITUTE FOR LIBERAL ARTS	95	91.6%
BROOKLYN INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	96	82.3%
BROOKLYN LAB SCHOOL	73	97.3%
BROOKLYN LABORATORY CHARTER SCHOOL	89	85.4%
BROOKLYN LATIN SCHOOL (THE)	162	97.5%
BROOKLYN PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	108	93.5%
BROOKLYN PROSPECT CHARTER SCHOOL-CSD 15	85	98.8%
BROOKLYN SCHOOL FOR MATH AND RESEARCH (T	60	93.3%
BROOKLYN SCHOOL FOR MUSIC & THEATER	68	80.9%
BROOKLYN SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE (THE)	78	84.6%
BROOKLYN STUDIO SECONDARY SCHOOL	159	86.2%
BROOKLYN TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL	1476	96.1%
BROOKLYN THEATRE ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	78	78.2%
BROOME STREET ACADEMY CHARTER HIGH SCHOO	87	59.8%
BROWNSVILLE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	34	20.6%
BUSHWICK COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	53	22.6%
BUSHWICK LEADERS HIGH SCHOOL FOR ACADEMI	70	84.3%
BUSINESS OF SPORTS SCHOOL	98	86.7%
BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY EARLY COLLEGE HIGH S	119	99.2%
CAMBRIA HEIGHTS ACADEMY	94	87.2%
CAPITAL PREPARATORY (CP) HARLEM CHARTER	17	70.6%
CAREERS IN SPORTS HIGH SCHOOL	114	77.2%
CASCADES HIGH SCHOOL	64	29.7%
CELIA CRUZ BRONX HIGH SCHOOL OF MUSIC (T	90	100.0%
CENTRAL PARK EAST HIGH SCHOOL	130	99.2%
CHANNEL VIEW SCHOOL FOR RESEARCH	151	98.7%
CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW AND SOCIAL J	122	79.5%
CHELSEA CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION H	108	88.9%
CINEMA SCHOOL (THE)	78	94.9%
CITY COLLEGE ACADEMY OF THE ARTS	88	100.0%
CITY POLYTECHNIC HIGH SCHOOL OF ENGINEER	80	96.3%
CIVIC LEADERSHIP ACADEMY	143	94.4%
CLARA BARTON HIGH SCHOOL	277	76.2%
CLAREMONT INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	83	86.7%
CLINTON SCHOOL (THE)	124	97.6%
COBBLE HILL SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES	120	83.3%
COLLEGE ACADEMY (THE)	88	90.9%
COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE FOR MATH AND SCIENC	153	86.9%
COLUMBIA SECONDARY SCHOOL	94	96.8%
COMMUNITY HEALTH ACADEMY OF THE HEIGHTS	104	91.3%
COMMUNITY SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE	79	67.1%
COMPREHENSIVE MODEL SCHOOL PROJECT MS 32	107	87.9%
CONCORD HIGH SCHOOL	56	28.6%
CONEY ISLAND PREPARATORY PUBLIC CHARTER	78	85.9%
CROTONA INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	91	86.8%
CSI HIGH SCHOOL FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIE	126	100.0%
CULTURAL ACADEMY FOR THE ARTS AND SCIENC	61	88.5%
CURTIS HIGH SCHOOL	656	75.2%
CYBERARTS STUDIO ACADEMY	50	68.0%
CYPRESS HILLS COLLEGIATE PREPARATORY SCH	92	92.4%
DEMOCRACY PREP ENDURANCE CHARTER SCHOOL	76	68.4%
DEMOCRACY PREP HARLEM CHARTER SCHOOL	82	80.5%
DEMOCRACY PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOOL	80	72.5%
DEWITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL	206	90.8%
DIGITAL ARTS AND CINEMA TECHNOLOGY HIGH	72	97.2%
DISCOVERY HIGH SCHOOL	110	90.0%
DR RICHARD IZQUIERDO HEALTH AND SCIENCE	96	77.1%
DR SUSAN S MCKINNEY SECONDARY SCHOOL OF	54	87.0%
DREAM CHARTER SCHOOL	97	99.0%
DREAMYARD PREPARATORY SCHOOL	50	86.0%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN	71	83.1%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN II	80	95.0%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN III	52	86.5%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN OF HARLEM	47	72.3%
EAGLE ACADEMY FOR YOUNG MEN OF STATEN IS	21	85.7%
EAST BRONX ACADEMY FOR THE FUTURE	106	79.2%
EAST BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	63	28.6%
EAST NEW YORK ARTS AND CIVICS HIGH SCHOO	62	82.3%
EAST NEW YORK FAMILY ACADEMY	66	100.0%
EAST SIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOL	79	92.4%
EAST WILLIAMSBURG SCHOLARS ACADEMY	51	76.5%
EAST-WEST SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIE	86	96.5%
EBC HIGH SCHOOL FOR PUBLIC SERVICE-BUSHW	116	93.1%
EDWARD A REYNOLDS WEST SIDE HIGH SCHOOL	85	11.8%
EDWARD R MURROW HIGH SCHOOL	867	85.9%
EL PUENTE ACADEMY FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE	47	76.6%
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL	133	100.0%
EMMA LAZARUS HIGH SCHOOL	95	48.4%
ENERGY TECH HIGH SCHOOL	110	94.5%
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND INTERNATIO	79	46.8%
EPIC HIGH SCHOOL - NORTH	111	92.8%
EPIC HIGH SCHOOL-SOUTH	97	91.8%
EQUALITY CHARTER SCHOOL	93	87.1%
ESPERANZA PREPARATORY ACADEMY	85	84.7%
ESSEX STREET ACADEMY	95	97.9%
EXCELLENCE GIRLS CHARTER SCHOOL	72	91.7%
EXCELSIOR PREPARATORTY HIGH SCHOOL	96	84.4%
EXIMIUS COLLEGE PREPARATORY ACADEMY: A	105	88.6%
EXPLORATIONS ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	57	78.9%
FACING HISTORY SCHOOL (THE)	66	81.8%
FANNIE LOU HAMER FREEDOM HIGH SCHOOL	113	81.4%
FDNY-CAPTAIN VERNON A RICHARDS HIGH SCHO	53	75.5%
FIORELLO H LAGUARDIA HIGH SCHOOL OF MUSI	768	98.6%
FLUSHING HIGH SCHOOL	320	83.4%
FLUSHING INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	103	83.5%
FOOD AND FINANCE HIGH SCHOOL	81	81.5%
FORDHAM HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS	83	96.4%
FORDHAM LEADERSHIP ACADEMY	65	100.0%
FOREST HILLS HIGH SCHOOL	891	91.6%
FORSYTHE SATELLITE ACADEMY	55	36.4%
FORT HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL	1168	81.9%
FRANCIS LEWIS HIGH SCHOOL	1114	94.3%
FRANK MCCOURT HIGH SCHOOL	103	97.1%
FRANK SINATRA SCHOOL OF THE ARTS HIGH SC	208	98.6%
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL	760	74.5%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY	187	83.4%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY II SECONDARY	64	90.6%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY III SECONDARY	98	74.5%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY VI HIGH SCHOO	86	48.8%
FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY VII HIGH SCHO	26	100.0%
GAYNOR MCCOWN EXPEDITIONARY LEARNING SCH	105	95.2%
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER HIGH SCHOOL FOR	99	84.8%
GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE CAREER AND TECHNICAL	181	90.6%
GLOBAL LEARNING COLLABORATIVE (THE)	113	89.4%
GOTHAM COLLABORATIVE HIGH SCHOOL	143	67.8%
GOTHAM PROFESSIONAL ARTS ACADEMY	31	96.8%
GRAMERCY ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	86	95.3%
GREGORIO LUPERON HIGH SCHOOL FOR SCIENCE	156	96.2%
GROVER CLEVELAND HIGH SCHOOL	407	77.1%
HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE PROMISE ACADEMY C	59	98.3%
HARLEM CHILDREN'S ZONE PROMISE ACADEMY I	50	100.0%
HARLEM PREP CHARTER SCHOOL	75	66.7%
HARLEM RENAISSANCE HIGH SCHOOL	87	17.2%
HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMY EAST CHARTER SCHO	33	97.0%
HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMY WEST CHARTER SCHO	35	94.3%
HARRY S TRUMAN HIGH SCHOOL	523	80.3%
HARVEST COLLEGIATE HIGH SCHOOL	108	90.7%
HARVEY MILK HIGH SCHOOL	29	62.1%
HEALTH OPPORTUNITIES HIGH SCHOOL	110	75.5%
HERBERT H LEHMAN HIGH SCHOOL	172	80.2%
HERITAGE SCHOOL (THE)	68	75.0%
HERO (HEALTH EDUCATION AND RESEARCH OCC	91	92.3%
HIGH SCHOOL 560 CITY-AS-SCHOOL	196	55.6%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR ARTS AND BUSINESS	172	97.7%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR CIVIL RIGHTS	61	73.8%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE (THE)	134	83.6%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP	126	96.0%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS	109	78.9%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR DUAL LANGUAGE AND ASIAN	99	99.0%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY	81	93.8%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENTERPRISE BUSINESS & T	203	85.2%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES	286	93.0%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATIO	56	69.6%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP (THE)	46	87.0%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR HEALTH CAREERS & SCIENCE	112	72.3%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONS & HUM	449	96.4%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR INNOVATION IN ADVERTISIN	55	78.2%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR LANGUAGE AND DIPLOMACY (	44	81.8%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR LANGUAGE AND INNOVATION	109	95.4%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW ADVOCACY AND COMMUN	83	75.9%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR LAW & PUBLIC SERVICE	108	63.9%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS	89	86.5%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONS	117	89.7%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR PUBLIC SERVICE-HEROES OF	107	92.5%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR SERVICE AND LEARNING AT	70	82.9%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR TEACHING AND THE PROFESS	102	78.4%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR VIOLIN AND DANCE	64	78.1%
HIGH SCHOOL FOR YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVE	131	85.5%
HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS SCIENCE AND ENG	139	100.0%
HIGH SCHOOL OF AMERICAN STUDIES AT LEHMA	93	98.9%
HIGH SCHOOL OF APPLIED COMMUNICATIONS	83	98.8%
HIGH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY	99	82.8%
HIGH SCHOOL OF COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGY	116	82.8%
HIGH SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS & FINANCE	174	92.0%
HIGH SCHOOL OF FASHION INDUSTRIES (THE)	334	95.2%
HIGH SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT	88	79.5%
HIGH SCHOOL OF SPORTS MANAGEMENT	74	73.0%
HIGH SCHOOL OF TELECOMMUNICATION ARTS AN	303	97.0%
HIGH SCHOOL OF WORLD CULTURES	131	91.6%
HIGH SCHOOL-CONSTRUCTION TRADES ENGINE	257	98.8%
HILLCREST HIGH SCHOOL	786	80.8%
HILLSIDE ARTS & LETTERS ACADEMY	105	96.2%
HOSTOS-LINCOLN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE	98	79.6%
HS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT AND PUBLIC SAFETY	90	87.8%
HUDSON HIGH SCHOOL OF LEARNING TECHNOLOG	111	85.6%
HUMANITIES AND ARTS MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL	91	91.2%
HUMANITIES PREPARATORY ACADEMY	69	94.2%
HYDE LEADERSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL	19	68.4%
IN-TECH ACADEMY (MS/HS 368)	150	82.7%
INDEPENDENCE HIGH SCHOOL	124	26.6%
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL	243	88.5%
INNOVATION CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	101	82.2%
INNOVATION DIPLOMA PLUS	51	21.6%
INSTITUTE FOR COLLABORATIVE EDUCATION	71	98.6%
INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONS AT CAMB	110	86.4%
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	103	71.8%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AT LAFAYETTE	89	73.0%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AT LAGUARDIA C	106	90.6%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AT PROSPECT HE	83	80.7%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL AT UNION SQUAR	94	88.3%
INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL FOR HEALTH SCI	70	80.0%
INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP CHARTER HIGH S	67	89.6%
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL FOR LIBERAL ARTS	93	79.6%
INWOOD ACADEMY FOR LEADERSHIP CHARTER SC	121	96.7%
INWOOD EARLY COLLEGE FOR HEALTH AND INFO	102	88.2%
IT TAKES A VILLAGE ACADEMY	165	81.8%
JACQUELINE KENNEDY-ONASSIS HIGH SCHOOL	65	83.1%
JAMAICA GATEWAY TO THE SCIENCES	122	93.4%
JAMES BALDWIN SCHOOL-A SCHOOL FOR EXPEDI	86	54.7%
JAMES MADISON HIGH SCHOOL	994	91.5%
JHS 74 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE	1
JILL CHAIFETZ TRANSFER HIGH SCHOOL	78	23.1%
JOHN ADAMS HIGH SCHOOL	659	83.8%
JOHN BOWNE HIGH SCHOOL	859	79.2%
JOHN DEWEY HIGH SCHOOL	558	82.6%
JOHN JAY SCHOOL FOR LAW	111	84.7%
JOHN V LINDSAY WILDCAT ACADEMY CHARTER S	97	15.5%
JOHN W LAVELLE PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOO	48	95.8%
JUAN MOREL CAMPOS SECONDARY SCHOOL	64	54.7%
JUDITH S KAYE SCHOOL (THE)	64	34.4%
KHALIL GIBRAN INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY	53	81.1%
KINGS COLLEGIATE CHARTER SCHOOL	81	92.6%
KINGSBOROUGH EARLY COLLEGE SCHOOL	91	100.0%
KINGSBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	119	58.8%
KIPP ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL	69	85.5%
KIPP INFINITY CHARTER SCHOOL	237	89.0%
KNOWLEDGE AND POWER PREP ACADEMY INTERNA	110	100.0%
KURT HAHN EXPEDITIONARY LEARNING SCHOOL	74	67.6%
LABORATORY SCHOOL OF FINANCE AND TECHNOL	88	95.5%
LANDMARK HIGH SCHOOL	73	84.9%
LEADERS HIGH SCHOOL	88	93.2%
LEADERSHIP & PUBLIC SERVICE HIGH SCHOOL	93	87.1%
LEADERSHIP PREPARATORY BEDFORD STUYVESAN	55	94.5%
LEADERSHIP PREPARATORY OCEAN HILL CHARTE	92	90.2%
LEON M GOLDSTEIN HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE SCI	240	95.4%
LIBERATION DIPLOMA PLUS	76	25.0%
LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMY FOR NEWCOMER	155	36.8%
LIFE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL FOR FILM AND MU	59	96.6%
LONG ISLAND CITY HIGH SCHOOL	499	84.6%
LONGWOOD PREPARATORY ACADEMY	85	82.4%
LOWER EAST SIDE PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	158	39.2%
LOWER MANHATTAN ARTS ACADEMY	76	80.3%
LYONS COMMUNITY SCHOOL	68	80.9%
MANHATTAN ACADEMY FOR ARTS AND LANGUAGES	62	66.1%
MANHATTAN BRIDGES HIGH SCHOOL	144	95.1%
MANHATTAN BUSINESS ACADEMY	103	93.2%
MANHATTAN CENTER FOR SCIENCE & MATHEMATI	429	97.2%
MANHATTAN COMPREHENSIVE NIGHT AND DAY HI	242	24.0%
MANHATTAN EARLY COLLEGE SCHOOL FOR ADVER	101	92.1%
MANHATTAN INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	72	69.4%
MANHATTAN VILLAGE ACADEMY	119	100.0%
MANHATTAN/HUNTER SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL	110	97.3%
MARBLE HILL HIGH SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL	106	99.1%
MARIE CURIE HIGH SCH-NURSING MEDICINE &	93	82.8%
MARTIN VAN BUREN HIGH SCHOOL	301	87.4%
MASPETH HIGH SCHOOL	400	99.3%
MATH ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE ACADEMY CH	125	94.4%
MATHEMATICS SCIENCE RESEARCH AND TECHNO	109	73.4%
MAXINE GREENE HIGH SCHOOL FOR IMAGINATIV	91	78.0%
MEDGAR EVERS COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL	234	96.2%
METROPOLITAN DIPLOMA PLUS HIGH SCHOOL	112	19.6%
METROPOLITAN EXPEDITIONARY LEARNING SCHO	102	100.0%
METROPOLITAN HIGH SCHOOL (THE)	82	73.2%
METROPOLITAN SOUNDVIEW HIGH SCHOOL (THE)	101	76.2%
MICHAEL J PETRIDES SCHOOL (THE)	111	96.4%
MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL AT LAGUARDIA	109	89.0%
MIDWOOD HIGH SCHOOL	994	95.7%
MILLENIUM ART ACADEMY	100	79.0%
MILLENNIUM BROOKLYN HIGH SCHOOL	173	99.4%
MILLENNIUM HIGH SCHOOL	158	99.4%
MORRIS ACADEMY FOR COLLABORATIVE STUDIES	117	91.5%
MOTT HALL BRONX HIGH SCHOOL	86	84.9%
MOTT HALL HIGH SCHOOL	46	80.4%
MOTT HALL V	93	95.7%
MOTT HAVEN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	111	52.3%
MOTT HAVEN VILLAGE PREPARATORY HIGH SCHO	70	61.4%
MULTICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOL	72	87.5%
MURRAY HILL ACADEMY	75	84.0%
MURRY BERGTRAUM HIGH SCHOOL FOR BUSINESS	21	81.0%
NELSON MANDELA HIGH SCHOOL	45	88.9%
NEW DAWN CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	99	29.3%
NEW DAWN CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL II	79	0.0%
NEW DESIGN HIGH SCHOOL	100	87.0%
NEW DIRECTIONS SECONDARY SCHOOL	60	36.7%
NEW DORP HIGH SCHOOL	755	88.9%
NEW EXPLORATIONS INTO SCIENCE TECH AND M	131	99.2%
NEW HEIGHTS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL	81	88.9%
NEW UTRECHT HIGH SCHOOL	814	73.8%
NEW VENTURES CHARTER SCHOOL	67	34.3%
NEW VISIONS AIM CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL I	59	27.1%
NEW VISIONS AIM CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL II	110	12.7%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADVA	125	98.4%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADVA	118	95.8%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADVA	83	97.6%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADVA	124	96.0%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE	101	84.2%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE	114	100.0%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE	46	95.7%
NEW VISIONS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE	68	94.1%
NEW WORLD HIGH SCHOOL	73	83.6%
NEW YORK CITY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR AR	106	94.3%
NEWCOMERS HIGH SCHOOL	217	74.7%
NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL	463	74.5%
NORTH QUEENS COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	41	2.4%
NORTHSIDE CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	82	93.9%
NUASIN NEXT GENERATION CHARTER SCHOOL	50	92.0%
NYC AUTISM CHARTER SCHOOL EAST HARLEM	8	0.0%
NYC ISCHOOL	116	100.0%
NYC LAB HIGH SCHOOL FOR COLLABORATIVE ST	109	96.3%
NYC MUSEUM SCHOOL	105	98.1%
OLYMPUS ACADEMY	61	27.9%
OPPORTUNITY CHARTER SCHOOL	52	90.4%
ORCHARD COLLEGIATE ACADEMY	65	93.8%
ORIGINS HIGH SCHOOL	83	92.8%
PACE HIGH SCHOOL	141	75.2%
PAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL	102	93.1%
PAN AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL A	84	89.3%
PARK EAST HIGH SCHOOL	92	100.0%
PARK SLOPE COLLEGIATE	82	79.3%
PATHWAYS COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOL: A	73	95.9%
PATHWAYS IN TECHNOLOGY EARLY COLLEGE HIG	106	81.1%
PELHAM LAB HIGH SCHOOL	119	75.6%
PELHAM PREPARATORY ACADEMY	123	92.7%
PERFORMING ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHO	75	86.7%
PHAROS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL	51	64.7%
PORT RICHMOND HIGH SCHOOL	403	82.9%
PREPARATORY ACADEMY FOR WRITERS: A COLL	92	87.0%
PROFESSIONAL PATHWAYS HIGH SCHOOL	90	24.4%
PROFESSIONAL PERFORMING ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	96	99.0%
PROGRESS HIGH SCHOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL CA	166	71.7%
PROVIDING URBAN LEARNERS SUCCESS IN EDUC	67	10.4%
PS 116 MARY LINDLEY MURRAY	1
PS 24 SPUYTEN DUYVIL	1
PS 43	1
QUEENS ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	132	15.2%
QUEENS COLLEGIATE - A COLLEGE BOARD SCHO	112	91.1%
QUEENS GATEWAY TO HEALTH SCIENCES SECOND	92	97.8%
QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL FOR INFORMATION RESE	110	89.1%
QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL FOR LANGUAGE STUDIES	105	91.4%
QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE SCIENCES AT Y	129	100.0%
QUEENS HIGH SCHOOL OF TEACHING LIBERAL	211	94.8%
QUEENS METROPOLITAN HIGH SCHOOL	250	85.6%
QUEENS PREPARATORY ACADEMY	76	85.5%
QUEENS SATELLITE HIGH SCHOOL FOR OPPORTU	57	10.5%
QUEENS SCHOOL OF INQUIRY (THE)	81	95.1%
QUEENS TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL	371	83.8%
QUEST TO LEARN	82	84.1%
RACHEL CARSON HIGH SCHOOL FOR COASTAL ST	151	88.7%
RALPH R MCKEE CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCA	198	79.3%
RENAISSANCE CHARTER SCHOOL	53	86.8%
RENAISSANCE HIGH SCHOOL FOR MUSICAL THEA	115	85.2%
REPERTORY COMPANY HIGH SCHOOL FOR THEATR	57	96.5%
RESEARCH AND SERVICE HIGH SCHOOL	68	27.9%
RICHARD R GREEN HIGH SCHOOL OF TEACHING	86	88.4%
RICHMOND HILL HIGH SCHOOL	447	74.0%
RIVERDALE/KINGSBRIDGE ACADEMY (MS/HS 141	188	91.5%
ROBERT F KENNEDY COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	158	88.0%
ROBERT F WAGNER JR SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR	114	96.5%
ROBERT H GODDARD HIGH SCHOOL FOR COMMUNI	159	98.7%
ROCKAWAY COLLEGIATE HIGH SCHOOL	81	79.0%
ROCKAWAY PARK HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENVIRONMEN	64	82.8%
SATELLITE ACADEMY HIGH SCHOOL	80	12.5%
SCHOLARS' ACADEMY	179	100.0%
SCHOOL FOR CLASSICS HIGH SCHOOL	51	78.4%
SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE	85	60.0%
SCHOOL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (THE)	78	88.5%
SCHOOL FOR TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY	41	51.2%
SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE HIGH SCHOOL	101	97.0%
SCHUYLERVILLE PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	101	85.1%
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH EARLY COL	85	100.0%
SCIENCE SKILLS CENTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR SC	154	99.4%
SOUTH BRONX COMMUNITY CHARTER HIGH SCHOO	85	75.3%
SOUTH BRONX PREPARATORY - A COLLEGE BOAR	81	97.5%
SOUTH BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	92	30.4%
SPECIAL MUSIC SCHOOL	45	100.0%
SPRING CREEK COMMUNITY SCHOOL	62	83.9%
STATEN ISLAND TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL	332	99.7%
STEPHEN T MATHER BUILDING ARTS AND CRAFT	104	88.5%
STUYVESANT HIGH SCHOOL	809	99.5%
SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL-HARLEM 1	70	81.4%
SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL-HARLEM 3	64	82.8%
SUMMIT ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOL	38	73.7%
SUNSET PARK HIGH SCHOOL	269	88.5%
SUSAN E WAGNER HIGH SCHOOL	808	89.1%
TALENT UNLIMITED HIGH SCHOOL	110	98.2%
TEACHERS PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL	41	75.6%
THEATRE ARTS PRODUCTION COMPANY SCHOOL	71	81.7%
THOMAS A EDISON CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDU	558	94.1%
THURGOOD MARSHALL ACADEMY FOR LEARNING &	79	82.3%
TOTTENVILLE HIGH SCHOOL	953	95.9%
TOWNSEND HARRIS HIGH SCHOOL	292	100.0%
TRANSIT TECH CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCAT	132	86.4%
UNION SQUARE ACADEMY FOR HEALTH SCIENCES	89	87.6%
UNITY CENTER FOR URBAN TECHNOLOGIES	58	96.6%
UNITY PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOOL OF BROO	77	88.3%
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS SECONDARY SCHOOL-BRON	154	98.7%
UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOOD HIGH SCHOOL	134	98.5%
UNIVERSITY PREP CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	106	95.3%
URBAN ACADEMY LABORATORY HIGH SCHOOL	44	56.8%
URBAN ACTION ACADEMY	48	66.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY ACADEMY OF GOVERNMENT AND	60	88.3%
URBAN ASSEMBLY BRONX ACADEMY OF LETTERS	79	83.5%
URBAN ASSEMBLY CHARTER SCHOOL FOR COMPUT	2
URBAN ASSEMBLY GATEWAY SCHOOL FOR TECHNO	105	99.0%
URBAN ASSEMBLY INSTITUTE OF MATH AND SCI	61	96.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY MAKER ACADEMY	104	95.2%
URBAN ASSEMBLY NEW YORK HARBOR SCHOOL	126	89.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR APPLIED MATH A	86	89.5%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR COLLABORATIVE	88	90.9%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR EMERGENCY MANA	55	92.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR GLOBAL COMMERC	59	78.0%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR GREEN CAREERS	75	94.7%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR LAW AND JUSTIC	108	92.6%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR LEADERSHIP AND	87	92.0%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR MEDIA STUDIES	98	88.8%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR MUSIC AND ART	23	82.6%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL FOR THE PERFORMING	97	81.4%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS FOR YO	35	74.3%
URBAN ASSEMBLY SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND CONS	57	84.2%
URBAN DOVE TEAM CHARTER SCHOOL	76	13.2%
URBAN DOVE TEAM CHARTER SCHOOL II	102	26.5%
VALIDUS PREPARATORY ACADEMY	90	71.1%
VANGUARD HIGH SCHOOL	102	67.6%
VERITAS ACADEMY	158	84.8%
VICTORY COLLEGIATE HIGH SCHOOL	68	86.8%
VOYAGES PREP-SOUTH QUEENS	117	42.7%
VOYAGES PREPARATORY	84	10.7%
W H MAXWELL CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATI	92	82.6%
WADLEIGH SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR THE PERFOR	46	100.0%
WASHINGTON HEIGHTS EXPEDITIONARY LEARNIN	100	93.0%
WEST BRONX ACADEMY FOR THE FUTURE	61	100.0%
WEST BROOKLYN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL	62	19.4%
WESTCHESTER SQUARE ACADEMY	112	87.5%
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT HIGH SCHOOL	567	86.8%
WILLIAM E GRADY CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDU	91	73.6%
WILLIAMSBURG CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL	249	83.9%
WILLIAMSBURG HIGH SCHOOL FOR ARCHITECTUR	147	98.0%
WILLIAMSBURG HIGH SCHOOL OF ART AND TECH	76	94.7%
WILLIAMSBURG PREPARATORY SCHOOL	171	98.8%
WINGS ACADEMY	87	71.3%
WOMEN'S ACADEMY OF EXCELLENCE	58	72.4%
WORLD ACADEMY FOR TOTAL COMMUNITY HEALTH	55	70.9%
WORLD JOURNALISM PREPARATORY: A COLLEGE	84	100.0%
WORLD VIEW HIGH SCHOOL	132	100.0%
YORK EARLY COLLEGE ACADEMY	92	98.9%
YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL	79	100.0%
YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL OF BROOK	57	96.5%
YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL OF THE B	62	93.5%
YOUNG WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP SCHOOL-QUEENS	66	92.4%
YOUNG WOMENS LEADERSHIP SCHOOL - ASTORIA	77	100.0%

School-by-school graduation rates

Kae Petrin

CUNY community colleges contend with plunging enrollment

2022-02-02T21:03:20+00:00

This story was originally published on Feb. 1 by THE CITY.

Brissbany Herrera sailed through her first semester at LaGuardia Community College in fall 2019, the first in her family of Peruvian immigrants to pursue higher education.

But midway through the Queens school’s spring semester in 2020, the pandemic knocked her off course — in addition to many of her neighbors in Elmhurst, a COVID-19 epicenter.

“I didn’t have internet,” said Herrera, 20, noting how her family couldn’t afford it when her classes moved online. “And I couldn’t find any way to attend.”

She immediately dropped out, she said. Meanwhile, her parents became infected with coronavirus and lost their jobs in construction and housekeeping. After they recovered and found stable employment again, Herrera opted to work as a home health aide instead of returning to college, while saving up to stage a comeback.

“I want to go back to college now,” Herrera told THE CITY, although she has yet to enroll at LaGuardia, which begins its new semester March 5.

As most of CUNY kicks off the spring semester this week, some of its campuses are continuing a steep decline in student enrollment that coincided with the pandemic.

The enrollment plunge has been most striking at the public university system’s seven community colleges — mirroring a troubling national trend.

Faculty, school leaders and higher ed observers point to a pile-on of forces pushing numbers down, including thin guidance counseling during remote high school, CUNY’s push for in-person classes when many students sought online courses, and would-be students joining the workforce.

Enrollment dropped 13.2% at the community colleges in January 2022 compared to a year prior, according to a snapshot of CUNY student data obtained by THE CITY. The data shows all but Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn suffered a drop in students.

Leading the decline was LaGuardia, which had 6,347 students as of Jan. 23 — a drop of 34% from the 9,673 students there at the same point in 2021, the data shows.

Across the country, undergraduate enrollment declined by 6.6% — more than 1 million students — from fall 2019 to fall 2021, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Colleges and universities in New York state account for 10% of that drop, a Forbes analysis found.

CUNY, recognized as a leading engine of economic mobility in the nation, enrolled 271,242 students in the fall 2019 semester, 91,715 of them at community colleges. A year later that fell to 261,134 students, including 69,323 at community colleges.

CUNY says it doesn’t have official fall 2021 enrollment numbers to share yet.

‘Trying to hold the line’

At LaGuardia, where many students hail from Queens neighborhoods disproportionately affected by the pandemic, enrollment has dropped nearly a quarter since 2019.

“We’re trying to hold the line and maintain our enrollment at the level from the fall,” Kenneth Adams, president of LaGuardia, told THE CITY.

The Long Island City-based college enrolled 12,187 students in the fall semester of 2021, down 23% from 15,836 in the last pre-pandemic semester in the fall of 2019.

“Our hope is that we’ve kind of reached the bottom and we’re going to start to rebuild and build up,” Adams added.

He said a major part of the school’s strategy to attract students involves raising money — on top of $10 million in donations already collected in the past several months — to help those in need.

“We have introduced a number of new scholarships, emergency aid programs, rental assistance,” he said. “We have gift cards that we give you and we load them up so you can order food delivered to your house through FreshDirect.”

The decline of enrollment in the city’s community colleges runs contrary to what happens historically when an economic catastrophe causes massive job losses, said Paul Attewell of the CUNY Graduate Center, who studies inequity in higher education and recently wrote a research paper titled “Where Have All The Students Gone?”

“Normally, when loads of people lose their jobs, the numbers of enrollment in community colleges and four-year colleges go up,” he said. “The people shelter by going into higher ed. That’s not what happened this time.”

Crunching data from the Office of Institutional Research at CUNY, Attewell found the number of college freshmen declined by 11% from the fall of 2019 to the fall of 2020. The dropoff was steepest among men, whose enrollment declined by 17.7%.

Adams acknowledged a plunge among first-year students at LaGuardia. “We’re seeing a real, very significant fall off in new freshmen,” he said.

Attewell said remote learning in New York City high schools likely led to fewer students being around the peer pressure of collegebound classmates and advisors asking about their future plans, or checking to see they filled out their student financial aid forms known as FAFSA.

“Students who weren’t super motivated to begin with, or super savvy about what they needed to do to go to college, were probably disrupted more than others,” he said.

Fewer students = Fewer teachers needed

The decline in enrollment has also been distressing for faculty members, said Lara Beaty, co-director of the psychology program and chair of the faculty union chapter at LaGuardia. She said the fall semester experienced more than 100 class cancellations.

“This particularly affects our adjuncts, many of whom have lost jobs and lost health insurance,” Beaty said.

Beaty, who researches adverse childhood experiences on student development, said the pandemic disruptions in education have been difficult for many of her students.

“A lot of them are stressed or even traumatized by everything that’s going on,” she said. “And it is making it harder for students and faculty alike to function, and the shifting from whether we’re going to be in person or online complicates it all the more.”

CUNY set a target of 70% in-person classes prior to the recent surge of omicron, but recently granted flexibility to individual campuses in setting their own targets, after faculty and union leaders complained that many online courses were overflowing out while in-person classes couldn’t attract enough students.

Beaty said she is worried about the community college enrollment decline, which began to fall pre-COVID but plummeted even further during the pandemic.

“The state of community colleges, and of the people that we serve, is very precarious right now, everything from jobs being less stable, the sort of gig economy that we have,” she said. That instability, she continued, “makes it a whole lot harder for students.”

“I cannot say I’m optimistic,” she said. “I’m trying to not be pessimistic either. But I think there’s some changes coming, and we need to figure out how to address them.”

James Davis, president of the Professional Staff Congress, representing some 30,000 faculty and staff members at CUNY, said his union is trying to ensure that faculty jobs aren’t lost when CUNY reflexively attempts to cancel classes with low enrollment.

“If enrollment isn’t strong in a class, they can technically cancel it right up until the last minute,” said Davis, who is also a professor of English at Brooklyn College. “And since so many of our faculty are on contingent appointments, and are not full time, it leaves at least those faculty members vulnerable to that kind of management.”

Full-time faculty taught 41.5% of undergrads in the 2019-2020 academic year, according to CUNY’s most recent Performance Management Process report.

The effects of class cancellation extend to students as well, he said. “It’s just destabilizing, and it forces them into yet another set of challenges that they don’t really need in their academic career,” he said.

Davis added that if LaGuardia “doesn’t make some adjustments, they’re facing some really tough challenges to class cancellations, too.”

Relying on federal dollars for now

Adams noted the decline in enrollment translates to a decline in revenue, but that federal stimulus funds are covering the losses in the current fiscal year ending in June. Going forward, he said, he worries about the next year.

“There will not be any more federal stimulus money to plug that hole,” he said.

Adams said he is also worried about the next generation of young people.

“If they’re not at work, and they’re not in school, and they’re not coming to CUNY, where are they? What are they doing?” he said.

In Herrera’s case, at least, she’s working but taking steps to return to LaGuardia.

A recent high school graduate when she enrolled in LaGuardia in 2019, she said she plans to study nursing, graduate, become independent and find a job earning enough to support her parents who sacrificed so she could have a better life in New York City.

“I want to make them proud of me,” she said.

Snow days or remote days? Illinois districts weigh options as snowstorms move through state

2022-02-02T12:08:36+00:00

This story was updated to reflect that Chicago Public Schools will be open to students Wednesday.

With Illinois bracing for two winter storms, downstate school districts are making a tough call. Some are closing schools for a snow day while others are going remote in an effort to preserve some learning amid an already interrupted pandemic year.

The state’s largest school district, Chicago Public Schools, said early Wednesday it would be open to students, after delaying the call Tuesday to monitor the weather. The district urged families to take extra precautions but said all campuses would be open for full instruction.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Springfield School District 186, Joliet Public Schools 86, and Bloomington School District 87 decided to close school buildings on Wednesday and Thursday for snow days, which will have to be made up before the end of the school year.

Meanwhile, Peoria Public School 150 and Valley View 365U will have an e-learning day for students.

The state is facing two winter storms that are expected to hit Tuesday night and last through Thursday, the National Weather Service is reporting.

Chicago could get from 5 to 11 inches of snow by Wednesday morning with additional snow falling through Thursday, according to the report.

In suburban Oaklawn, District 123 announced it would switch to emergency remote learning, while District 122 planned to close school buildings and cancel all instruction Wednesday.

Chicago Public Schools waited to make the call. By Tuesday evening, Chicago Public Schools had yet to make a decision about canceling classes but told teachers to plan to report to school buildings Wednesday. “We are monitoring the weather forecast carefully and will communicate with you if anything changes,” the e-mail said.

At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, CEO Pedro Martinez said the district would factor into its decision how much snow is expected to drop in Chicago, the timing of the snowfall, and whether city crews would be able to clear streets before the morning commute.

Tuesday afternoon, the district placed school administrators on standby to send electronic learning devices home should the district cancel in-person instruction, Martinez said. It’s not clear how many administrators prepared for remote learning.

Other districts across the Midwest, including Detroit, made the call to go remote for the remainder of the week in the face of the storm.

Detroit school district returns to remote learning because of snowstorm

2022-02-01T20:15:13+00:00

The Detroit school district will return to remote instruction for the remainder of the week as the district closes school buildings ahead of a major snowstorm.

A day after the Detroit Public Schools Community District resumed in-person learning for its roughly 50,000 students, school officials informed the community Tuesday afternoon that buildings would be closed Wednesday through Friday.

The district plans to return to in-person school on Feb. 7. Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti informed parents last week that the district had used all six of its forgiven days this school year for health and safety reasons. He said all future snow days will most likely be replaced with online learning days.

School districts across southeast Michigan are preparing for the winter storm, which could bring more than a foot of snow. Ann Arbor Public Schools announced that it would return to virtual learning on Wednesday in light of the predicted storm.

As cases plummet, NYC tweaks COVID testing at schools and limits remote learning

2022-01-31T23:22:01+00:00

New York City is tweaking the formula it uses to calculate how many students should get swabbed for each school’s weekly coronavirus testing program, school officials announced Monday.

In another change, officials announced that starting Wednesday only students who test positive or fail the city’s health screener will be eligible for remote instruction, reversing the policy from just two weeks ago that gave schools discretion to provide online work for students who stayed home for a variety of reasons.

A press release noted the move to limit remote learning was thanks to “improving conditions of the pandemic and increased levels of testing.” A record high of more than 14,000 COVID cases among students and staff was reported on Jan. 10, officials said. On Monday, three weeks later, the number dropped to 810, though New York City is still currently considered to have high transmission levels.

The COVID testing tweak aims to boost the number of PCRs for children on campuses with high vaccination rates. Despite that change, public health experts continue to raise concerns about whether the school-based testing protocols are an effective strategy for either interrupting transmission or giving city officials a sense of whether other measures such as mask wearing or ventilation are working.

Getting more kids tested

The city’s testing formula is complicated. Schools currently test the equivalent of 20% of their unvaccinated population who consented to testing, meaning schools with higher rates of vaccinated children have fewer students getting swabbed each week. For example, a school with 100 students and a 70% vaccination rate would test just six students. Those six students, however, are supposed to be a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated students.

Starting on Feb. 7, that formula will stay in place for many schools. But others can test 10% of their overall student population — up to 250 — if that would result in more students being tested. So, for that same school with 100 students and a 70% vaccination rate, 10 students would be tested each week rather than six.

The testing program will still allow up to 10% of interested staff at a given school to be tested, though in practice some staff have reported challenges getting swabbed. (Pre-K and kindergarten students continue to be excluded from the school-based testing program.)

The change is designed to increase the number of students who are tested on campuses with high vaccination rates, which in some cases have seen tiny portions of their school community tested. But education department officials did not respond to questions about how many more students will be tested each week due to the policy change nor have they released vaccination or testing consent rates by school. The vast majority of students have not consented to testing, according to the most recent data, severely limiting the pool of students who are eligible in the first place.

Education officials have said they are considering automatically opting students into the testing program with an option to opt out, but have not done so.

More testing might not interrupt transmission

Officials have previously said their testing protocol is consistent with federal and state guidance, but did not offer an explanation of what goals the program is designed to accomplish.

Public health experts said the program has two possible objectives. One is to interrupt transmission by identifying students or staff who are infectious and removing them from school. The other is to monitor whether other measures like ventilation and masking are working and detect large-scale outbreaks in school communities.

Multiple experts said the city’s testing policy, even with the latest tweaks, was unlikely to have a big effect on interrupting transmission since the number of people being tested was too modest as was the frequency of testing. The increased speed of the omicron variant also means that if the test results take a few days to process, quarantines may be issued too late to have a large effect.

“As long as the random testing is done through PCR, it’s not going to accomplish a lot” in terms of preventing transmission, said Susan Hassig, an epidemiologist at Tulane University, especially because the results can take days to be reported.

Hassig said she would instead recommend deploying rapid tests for a given percentage of each school’s population, rather than PCR tests based on the share of unvaccinated students. PCR tests, she noted, may come back positive even if a person is not contagious, which appears to be less likely with rapid tests.

Experts offered differing views of whether the testing program could still be helpful to monitor whether other mitigation measures such as ventilation upgrades and mask-wearing were having the desired effect.

Anna Bershteyn, an assistant professor of population health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said the school-based COVID testing program still offers some value and the latest tweaks could provide a broader sample of students to be tested at some schools.

“Even as vaccination numbers rise, it’s important to continue surveillance testing to make sure schools are not sites of transmission, and if they are, to devote more resources to strengthen layers of protection as needed,” she wrote in an email. “Testing can help to prioritize where the investments are needed most.”

City officials have said they will investigate schools when there are at least 10 positive cases in one classroom and determine whether to prioritize investments in ventilation at those campuses. Despite the post-winter break surge in cases, no investigations have been logged, according to public data.

Other experts said the city should consider ditching the in-school testing program entirely, especially as the city has rolled out a “test-to-stay” program that distributes at-home COVID tests to students and staff exposed to COVID in the classroom, allowing them to remain in school as long as they test negative.

Such a move, however, would likely frustrate the city’s teachers union and many educators who have called for increased PCR testing.

“The city has not made it clear what the goal of the policy is,” said Ben Linas, an epidemiologist at Boston University. “I think that the city should stop its random testing program and reinvest those resources into testing to stay and other mitigation measures.”

Pre-K added to at-home rapid kit distribution

Also on Monday, city officials said they are planning to expand the distribution of rapid tests before midwinter recess, which runs Feb. 21-25.

Gov. Kathy Hochul previously announced that the state would provide enough at-home tests for every K-12 student in the state. City officials said they would make the test kits available to preschool students as well.

Families will be encouraged, but not required, to use the tests before the break ends.

“Because of our extensive health and safety measures, COVID-19 cases in our schools have decreased 95%, and the in-school positivity rate remains significantly lower than the city-wide rate,” Nathaniel Styer, an education department spokesperson said in a statement. “Expanding in-school testing and at-home rapid tests will ensure every student is ready to safely attend instruction in-person after Midwinter Break.”

Tennessee’s remote learning waiver process brings desperation, disruption

2022-01-26T16:17:16+00:00

The decision to apply for a waiver to Tennessee’s remote learning ban was not taken lightly.

Fayette County Schools Superintendent Versie Hamlett had been monitoring student and staff absenteeism at LaGrange-Moscow Elementary, one of the rural West Tennessee district’s seven schools. Day after day, the numbers kept rising until, on Jan. 13, they reached a breaking point: 18% of students, 16% of teachers, and 25% of other school staff members were absent.

“There comes a time when you really don’t have enough staff to run the facility appropriately and safely,” Hamlett said. “We thought through [the waiver] process and we thought it was the best thing to do, for our students especially, to stay home until this kind of passes over.”

As school districts and charter school networks across Tennessee and around the country face unprecedented staffing obstacles during the latest COVID wave, families, child care providers, and school officials are struggling to keep up with school closures and remote learning reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic.

The obstacles are especially acute in Tennessee, where state law prevents school leaders from closing buildings and switching to remote learning without approval from the state’s top education official, Commissioner Penny Schwinn — and even then, only for five days at a time.

After the delta variant surge late last summer, waiver requests subsided in the fall. But they again exploded with the new year after the omicron variant arrived.

As of Jan. 20, the Department of Education had received 107 waiver requests since the process began Aug. 27, said spokesman Brian Blackley. Of those, 100 were approved, including one partial approval, and two were denied. Five additional requests were deemed ineligible.

The process in Tennessee can translate to desperation and disruption – and a limited ability to plan ahead – for students and families who have endured a challenging past two years.

For Jamie Jones, a child care provider in Oakland, a rural town of nearly 7,000 in Fayette County, last week felt like 2020 all over again. She juggled looking after four children in her care, while also tutoring first grader Olivia and walking her through worksheets sent home from LaGrange-Moscow Elementary.

Olivia — who attended Jones’ birth-to-prekindergarten day care for the first several years of her life — had returned to Jones’ care for the week. When her school abruptly announced on Thursday it would be closed a week starting the following day due to COVID spread and staffing concerns, her mom had nowhere else to send her — until she reached out to Jones.

Jones’ in-home day care has what she proudly calls a “revolving door” — she’ll take an extra child into her care here and there to help out, but she estimates that she’s one of two providers in all of Fayette County. She can’t help but wonder where other parents, at LaGrange-Moscow Elementary or elsewhere, send their children when in need of child care with short notice.

“We really don’t have places for our kids to go. It’s friends, families, or people like me,” Jones said. “There was no panic on my end — I love my job and I’m flexible. But I know there was a lot of panic among the parents.”

Going remote is not simple for Tennessee schools

Across the nation, shortages, frustration, and resilience have marked the return from winter break for school systems in places such as Detroit, Chicago, and Newark, N.J., where districts temporarily closed school buildings for a week or more.

But that hasn’t been the case in Tennessee, which is one of at least 10 other states that explicitly require in-person learning to be offered, according to a recent Education Commission of the States report.

If local school administrators conclude in-person instruction is no longer feasible, they must get Schwinn’s approval for a waiver for an individual class or school.

Here’s how the process works: School officials submit an application, answering questions about the number of schools or classrooms in need of remote learning, the counts and percentage of students, teachers, and school staff who are absent because they’re quarantining or in isolation, and why they’re no longer able to provide in-person instruction.

The state’s waivers to go remote are for five calendar days, rolled back from the seven-day waivers approved last semester. The shortened window is due to federal and state guidance that cut in half the recommended isolation time for people testing positive for the coronavirus from 10 days to five.

Schwinn did not respond when asked through a spokesman how well the waiver process is working for students and parents.

State Sen. Page Walley, whose West Tennessee district includes Fayette County, said that the system has been helpful in giving school leaders an option to pursue.

“I believe these waivers are being thoughtfully sought,” said the Bolivar Republican. “They’re time-limited and serving their purpose, which is to get people through when a rapid wave [of COVID] is affecting the population in one school.”

Walley also said he likes that Schwinn is making the call about switching to remote learning, instead of leaving it up to superintendents or charter school leaders.

“It gives us another set of eyes to look at the data, which then reinforces the decision-making process. That’s also helpful for local leaders if they’re ever questioned about a decision,” Walley said, adding that he hasn’t received any complaints about the remote waiver process.

‘There are not enough bodies’

The voices from administrators strike a different tone — one that often conveys a sense of desperation.

Memphis’ Soulsville Charter School, which serves over 600 students in grades 6-12, had “exhausted all of our resources to keep school in person,’’ executive director NeShante Brown wrote in the school’s waiver application on Jan. 7. With almost a quarter of teachers and just over 15% of other school staff in isolation or quarantine, plus others out due to other illnesses, “there are not enough bodies” to keep Soulsville open, Brown said.

The situation was similar at Beacon College Preparatory, another Memphis charter school, where officials reported 10% of teachers and 36% of students were absent Jan. 17.

“It is not feasible to conduct in-person learning without ⅓ of our student population and a lead teacher,” Joe Buldoc, founder and head of the Memphis charter school, wrote in his application.

“It’s a crisis when you can’t staff schools,” said Dale Lynch, executive director of Tennessee’s superintendents organization. “School leaders are having a very difficult time keeping their schools operational under omicron, whether it’s having enough teachers or bus drivers, cafeteria workers, or teacher aides.”

They’d rather keep school buildings open, Lynch added, but are glad that waivers give them an option to temporarily move students to remote learning.

Many of the most recent requests have come from rural and suburban districts in Middle Tennessee, though several smaller urban districts, such as Knoxville, and charter schools in Memphis, such as Soulsville and Beacon College Preparatory, have also asked to move to remote instruction. Meanwhile, Shelby County Schools, the state’s largest school district, has not applied for a waiver. District officials say they’ve been able to make staffing work so far.

In some cases, getting a waiver at one school has helped district officials patch staffing holes in other schools.

While LaGrange-Moscow was closed, Hamlett said healthy staff members were sent to other schools in the district that were struggling to keep their doors open, and students were sent home with learning packets.

Although the situation is far from ideal, Hamlett said she’s grateful for Schwinn’s support during the waiver process and for the school community’s continued patience.

“We’re in a pandemic and we have to do what’s best for our students and everyone has been really understanding of that,” she said.

Short notice on closures can stir panic

Cynthia Kennon, whose daughter is in fourth grade at LaGrange-Moscow Elementary, said she understands the school’s situation. The school’s sudden closure was not stressful for Kennon — she is unable to work because she has rheumatoid arthritis, and her daughter was able to stay home with her — but she knows that less than 24-hour notice of a school closure sends many working parents into panic mode.

Sending a letter home with students at the end of one school day informing them the school would be closed the next isn’t enough notice, she said.

“I mean, there was really no actual warning,” Kennon said, though she knew COVID cases were climbing at the school.

While Kennon had time to work with her daughter on the printed learning packets sent home with her, she also knows not every parent has that luxury. On top of it all, Kennon’s daughter has dyslexia and reading through the packet likely took her longer than other children.

Her daughter’s special education teacher also recommended they complete the work following her school schedule in order to keep the same routine of a school day — something a working parent would not be able to do.

Those kinds of challenges that parents face during school closures are part of the reason why Gary Lilly, superintendent of Collierville Schools, applied for a virtual learning waiver at the high school level rather than the elementary or middle schools.

All of the district’s schools had reached a breaking point, Lilly said. After exhausting the district’s substitute teacher pool, school leaders resorted to covering classrooms with teacher assistants, school principals, and even administrators from the central office.

On Monday, Jan. 11, Lilly realized the district wouldn’t be able to make the rest of the week work. But, Lilly wondered, which school does it make sense to move to remote learning?

Cases were soaring at the high school: As of Jan. 10, 14% of students and teachers and 29% of school support staff were either infected with COVID or had potentially been exposed to the virus. Plus, Lilly figured Collierville High is by far the district’s largest school, and going remote would have the greatest impact on limiting spread of the virus.

In addition, students at that age are more independent and are better equipped to learn online compared to elementary and middle school students, Lilly said.

“Parents, understandably, don’t want to leave their small children home alone and nor should they,” Lilly said. “It really made sense to do it at the high school level.”

Lilly applied for the waiver around lunch time that day; Schwinn approved the request around 3 p.m. By 4 p.m., the district had notified parents of the shift to remote instruction. He knew most high school students would be able to stay home alone and could manage attending class virtually.

While Lilly was initially nervous about the waiver process, in the end, it wasn’t difficult. Still, having to get state approval is yet another hurdle in an already turbulent school year, Lilly said.

“This year has been more challenging even than previous years,” Lilly said. “We thought we were coming out of the pandemic, and just when you’re about to get some relief, you hear about a new variant and it all kind of starts over again.”

“We’re doing what we can; we’re making it work,” he added. “But it’s challenging.”

Tennessee lawmakers advance school voucher bill targeting remote education

2022-01-20T00:55:38+00:00

A key Senate panel approved legislation Wednesday that would provide public money for private school tuition for Tennessee students whose school systems do not offer in-person learning all year.

However, lawmakers amended the bill first to remove a provision that also would have extended vouchers to students whose parents disagree with school mask mandates in their district.

The 6-2 vote in the Senate Education Committee came after only 30 minutes of discussion about a controversial voucher policy that has been debated for years in Tennessee’s legislature and is currently being challenged in court.

Meanwhile, dozens of schools across Tennessee are closed this week — or have moved remote temporarily — because of staffing challenges caused by COVID’s omicron variant.

Unlike Tennessee’s 2019 voucher law that was promoted as helping low-income students who attend low-performing schools in a few districts, the new legislation seeks to incentivize all 147 of the state’s school systems to keep students learning in person amid COVID-19.

“We’re doing this because we know that in-person learning is the most effective way to educate a child,” said Sen. Mike Bell of Riceville, noting that last year’s test scores showed a dramatic drop following a year of learning disruptions that leaned on remote instruction.

Sen. Mike Bell

The Republican lawmaker, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Rep. Michael Curcio of Dickson, said he wants public school systems to “take that job seriously” and keep brick-and-mortar classrooms open. He made references to large districts in Memphis and Nashville that provided mostly online learning last school year and saw their students’ scores decline beyond average statewide declines.

The bill would extend voucher eligibility to students in any district that does not offer 180 days of in-person learning because of the coronavirus pandemic for the three upcoming school years beginning Sept. 1, 2022.

Other eligibility requirements under the 2019 law would remain in place for students in districts that have a high concentration of low-performing “priority schools,” or have schools in the state’s school turnaround district program known as the Achievement School District. That criteria applies to Memphis and Nashville, where leaders didn’t want vouchers introduced and challenged the law in court.

Tennessee’s voucher program was halted by a judge in 2020 because it applied only to students in Memphis and Nashville. The case is under appeal, with arguments scheduled before the Tennessee Supreme Court on Feb. 24.

In the Senate panel, lawmakers questioned whether the new proposal could trigger voucher eligibility in districts receiving state-approved waivers to switch temporarily to remote learning. Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn launched the waiver process last fall after the COVID delta variant spread made it hard to keep schools staffed.

Charlie Bufalino, assistant commissioner of policy and legislative affairs for the Tennessee Department of Education, said the short answer is yes. However, it’s uncertain whether remote waivers will be offered beginning next school year when the proposed voucher legislation would kick in, he added.

If remote waivers are still available, Bufalino said districts could consider offering an in-person option while also providing temporary remote learning — or they could just use their 13 days stockpiled for closing schools due to inclement weather, illness, or other widespread challenges.

Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat who voted against the bill, said districts could quickly exhaust their stockpiled days and be forced to extend their school year into summertime.

Akbari also pointed out that many private schools continue to toggle back and forth between in-person and remote learning to adjust to the changing pandemic.

“What happens if a parent tries to use this [voucher] just because they want to get their kid in a private school, and that private school is doing virtual learning?” she asked. “Then we’re taking state dollars to go to this private school, and they’re doing the same thing that’s being done by [public schools.]”

“That’s the beauty about this piece of legislation,” Bell responded. “That’s up to the parent. It’s a parent’s responsibility to choose a school that is going to meet their child’s needs.”

“My concern with that is it’s still state dollars,” Akbari reiterated, “and they’re taking state dollars to a private school that’s potentially doing the same thing that the public school is doing. So it’s not helping something that’s been identified as a problem. It is just giving the parents a state fund to take their child to a private school.”

Voucher critics have long argued that voucher advocates have an agenda beyond giving more education choices to families, many of whom already have multiple options such as public charter schools, magnet schools, online schools, and specialized optional schools, as well as homeschooling and private schools. They say the goal is to privatize education, especially for more affluent families who can most afford to cover the full cost of private school tuition beyond the $7,000 or so that a Tennessee voucher would provide.

The leader of Tennessee school superintendents said his organization opposes the bill, as it has all voucher legislation.

“We’re opposed to public funds leaving our public schools,” said executive director Dale Lynch. “Decisions are difficult enough at the local level, especially during this pandemic. Putting in this extra layer just adds to the challenges we face while trying to do what’s best for all students.”

On a related note, Gov. Bill Lee, who championed the 2019 law, is seeking to rewrite Tennessee’s 30-year-old system for funding schools to a student-based approach instead of the current resource-based approach.

The change could force the state to do student-by-student calculations that would make it easier for Tennessee to expand a private school voucher program, although Lee has denied that’s the reason he’s pushing for an overhaul.

You can track the voucher legislation here.

Annual census shows Colorado schools are still missing students

2022-01-19T19:27:46+00:00

Slightly more children enrolled in Colorado public schools this school year than last year, but enrollment still remains far below pre-pandemic levels.

Colorado schools counted 886,517 students, an increase of 3,318 students or just 0.4% over last school year, according to annual data released Wednesday by the Colorado Department of Education.

Before the pandemic caused school closures and other disruptions, Colorado public school enrollment had been growing slowly and was at more than 913,000 in the fall of 2019. Current enrollment is about 2.9% below that level.

When schools shut down, many students stopped engaging and school districts struggled to find them. Districts are spending considerable time and effort on tracking down students who stopped coming to school.

Despite that work, fewer than 600 schools in the state increased enrollment this school year from their fall 2019 totals. More than twice as many schools remain below those levels.

Some of the decline is related to long-term demographic trends, and some is related to families making different educational choices.

“The big question is how sticky the pandemic changes will be,” Van Schoales, senior policy director at Keystone Policy Center, said.

Last school year, some of the largest enrollment decreases were in the lowest grades, but this year preschool and kindergarten grew the most over the previous year.

Also last school year, some students left local schools to home school. That trend reversed this school year, with the number of students home-schooling now at 10,502, down from 15,773 last year, but still much higher than 7,880 in 2019.

Together, online programs recorded a slight decrease in enrollment this year compared with last. A Chalkbeat analysis comparing this year’s enrollment with 2019-20 shows that many of the schools with the highest gains are online schools.

Racial and ethnic breakdowns show that the number of white and Black students dropped for a second year while the number of Hispanic students in public schools grew some. The number of white students had already been dropping before the pandemic, but the number of Black and Hispanic students in the state previously had been growing.

In raw numbers, enrollment grew the most among Hispanic students — a gain of 4,357 students — partially recovering from the second-highest drop in students last school year when there was a loss of 8,114 students.

This year’s gains, as a percentage of their total, were not the largest. Students who identify as two or more races, and native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students posted the largest percentage gains.

In numbers, the biggest decline came among white students, with 3,106 fewer than a year earlier. By percentage, Native American students had the biggest decreases in both this school year and the previous one.

Enrollment had been declining in most metro area school districts even before the pandemic. The Sheridan, Littleton and Jeffco school districts posted the largest percentage drops in the number of students among metro area districts. Other districts with large drops in enrollment included Cheyenne Mountain 12 in Colorado Springs and the Las Animas district in southern Colorado.

The districts with the largest increases in enrollment included the Harrison school district in El Paso County and the 27J district based in Brighton.

Look up enrollment changes at your school or district in the table below:

District name	School name	2021 enrollment	2019 enrollment	Percent change
School District 27J	27J Online Academy	390	-	-
Denver County 1	5280 High School	114	95	20.00%
Pueblo County 70	70 Online	214	218	-1.83%
Denver County 1	Abraham Lincoln High School	993	971	2.27%
Fountain 8	Abrams Elementary School	480	467	2.78%
Denver County 1	Academia Ana Marie Sandoval	380	423	-10.17%
Denver County 1	Academy 360	213	208	2.40%
Douglas County Re 1	Academy Charter School	739	745	-0.81%
Academy 20	Academy Endeavour Elementary School	321	415	-22.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning	285	293	-2.73%
Mapleton 1	Academy High School	470	467	0.64%
Academy 20	Academy International Elementary School	414	521	-20.54%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Academy of Advanced Learning	872	758	15.04%
Charter School Institute	Academy of Arts and Knowledge Elementary	152	212	-28.30%
Charter School Institute	Academy of Charter Schools	1,894	1886	0.42%
Las Animas RE-1	Academy of Las Animas Online School	351	1796	-80.46%
Mapleton 1	Achieve Academy	397	526	-24.52%
Colorado Springs 11	Achieve Online	332	271	22.51%
Douglas County Re 1	Acres Green Elementary School	380	493	-22.92%
Adams County 14	Adams City High School	1,770	1721	2.85%
Adams County 14	Adams City Middle School	657	773	-15.01%
Jefferson County R-1	Adams Elementary School	329	381	-13.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Adams Elementary School	350	452	-22.57%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Adams12 Five Star Preschool	45	207	-78.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Addenbrooke Classical Academy	184	396	-53.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Addenbrooke Classical Grammar School	635	449	41.43%
Mapleton 1	Adventure Elementary	376	428	-12.15%
Agate 300	Agate Elementary School	48	32	50.00%
Agate 300	Agate Junior Senior High School	36	12	200.00%
Aguilar Reorganized 6	Aguilar Elementary School	63	69	-8.70%
Aguilar Reorganized 6	Aguilar Junior-Senior High School	51	52	-1.92%
Academy 20	Air Academy High School	1,351	1403	-3.71%
Akron R-1	Akron Elementary School	314	284	10.56%
Akron R-1	Akron High School	97	87	11.49%
Jefferson County R-1	Alameda International Junior/Senior High School	1,080	1117	-3.31%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Elementary School 3-5	498	1142	-56.39%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Elementary School K-2	464	-	-
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa High School	597	600	-0.50%
Alamosa RE-11J	Alamosa Online	92	-	-
Sheridan 2	Alice Terry Elementary School	204	214	-4.67%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Alicia Sanchez International School	335	360	-6.94%
District 49	ALLIES	120	121	-0.83%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Alpine Elementary School	391	475	-17.68%
Adams County 14	Alsup Elementary School	463	415	11.57%
Lamar Re-2	Alta Vista Charter School	130	132	-1.52%
Cherry Creek 5	Altitude Elementary School	1,007	779	29.27%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Altona Middle School	795	830	-4.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Altura Elementary School	466	521	-10.56%
Douglas County Re 1	American Academy	2,556	2535	0.83%
Denver County 1	American Indian Academy of Denver	146	-	-
Boulder Valley Re 2	Angevine Middle School	659	689	-4.35%
Charter School Institute	Animas High School	204	208	-1.92%
Durango 9-R	Animas Valley Elementary School	181	248	-27.02%
Cherry Creek 5	Antelope Ridge Elementary School	588	655	-10.23%
Academy 20	Antelope Trails Elementary School	321	337	-4.75%
South Conejos RE-10	Antonito High School	38	46	-17.39%
South Conejos RE-10	Antonito Middle School	26	20	30.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Apex Home School Enrichment Program	717	804	-10.82%
Mesa County Valley 51	Appleton Elementary School	444	456	-2.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	APS Early Beginnings - A Zoom Site	38	35	8.57%
Fountain 8	Aragon Elementary School	366	672	-45.54%
Littleton 6	Arapahoe High School	1,884	2157	-12.66%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Arapahoe Ridge Elementary School	500	575	-13.04%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Arapahoe Ridge High School	134	150	-10.67%
Arickaree R-2	Arickaree Elementary School	53	54	-1.85%
Arickaree R-2	Arickaree Undivided High School	48	60	-20.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Arkansas Elementary School	429	418	2.63%
Cherry Creek 5	Arrowhead Elementary School	500	539	-7.24%
Douglas County Re 1	Arrowwood Elementary School	367	383	-4.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada High School	759	768	-1.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada K-8	554	652	-15.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Arvada West High School	1,765	1801	-2.00%
Denver County 1	Asbury Elementary School	310	333	-6.91%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Ascend College Prep	39	-	-
Charter School Institute	Ascent Classical Academy Douglas County	856	544	57.35%
Charter School Institute	Ascent Classical Academy Northern Colorado	581	-	-
Denver County 1	Ashley Elementary School	272	351	-22.51%
Aspen 1	Aspen Community Charter School	135	135	0.00%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Aspen Creek K-8 School	733	859	-14.67%
Cherry Creek 5	Aspen Crossing Elementary School	607	612	-0.82%
Aspen 1	Aspen Elementary School	464	462	0.43%
Aspen 1	Aspen High School	569	554	2.71%
Aspen 1	Aspen Middle School	469	478	-1.88%
Aspen 1	Aspen Preschool	15	24	-37.50%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Aspen Ridge Preparatory School	503	439	14.58%
Academy 20	Aspen Valley Campus	117	159	-26.42%
Douglas County Re 1	Aspen View Academy	930	904	2.88%
Harrison 2	Aspire Online Academy	139	-	-
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy Elementary School	679	114	495.61%
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy High School	1,564	485	222.47%
Byers 32J	Astravo Online Academy Middle School	714	68	950.00%
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory Elementary School	206	-	-
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory High School	512	457	12.04%
Harrison 2	Atlas Preparatory Middle School	516	514	0.39%
Colorado Springs 11	Audubon Elementary School	286	346	-17.34%
Denver County 1	AUL Denver	157	135	16.30%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Academy Charter School	506	520	-2.69%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Central High School	1,830	2027	-9.72%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Frontier K-8	772	692	11.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Hills Middle School	842	777	8.37%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Quest K-8	586	595	-1.51%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora Science & Tech Middle School	444	166	167.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Aurora West College Preparatory Academy	1,106	1137	-2.73%
Buena Vista R-31	Avery/Parsons Elementary School	439	428	2.57%
Eagle County RE 50	Avon Elementary School	290	253	14.62%
Pueblo County 70	Avondale Elementary School	143	170	-15.88%
Charter School Institute	Axis International Academy	190	203	-6.40%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	AXL Academy	358	445	-19.55%
Valley RE-1	Ayres Elementary School	369	451	-18.18%
Thompson R2-J	B F Kitchen Elementary School	193	217	-11.06%
Delta County 50(J)	Backpack Early Learning Academy	198	214	-7.48%
Poudre R-1	Bacon Elementary School	443	595	-25.55%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Baker Elementary School	293	303	-3.30%
Poudre R-1	Bamford Elementary School	263	-	-
District 49	Banning Lewis Ranch Academy	1,676	1435	16.79%
Denver County 1	Barnum Elementary School	333	387	-13.95%
Meeker RE-1	Barone Middle School	158	188	-15.96%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt Elementary School	508	564	-9.93%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt High School	451	501	-9.98%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Basalt Middle School	416	482	-13.69%
Eagle County RE 50	Battle Mountain Early College High School	5	13	-61.54%
Eagle County RE 50	Battle Mountain High School	945	955	-1.05%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Battle Rock Charter School	89	77	15.58%
Poudre R-1	Bauder Elementary School	531	587	-9.54%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield High School	398	372	6.99%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Intermediate School	302	321	-5.92%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Middle School	326	361	-9.70%
Bayfield 10 Jt-R	Bayfield Primary School	285	309	-7.77%
Garfield 16	Bea Underwood Elementary School	355	367	-3.27%
Garfield 16	Bea Underwood Pre-School	54	-	-
Denver County 1	Beach Court Elementary School	262	255	2.75%
Douglas County Re 1	Bear Canyon Elementary School	411	492	-16.46%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Bear Creek Elementary School	892	963	-7.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Bear Creek Elementary School	346	400	-13.50%
Jefferson County R-1	Bear Creek High School	1,495	1514	-1.25%
Jefferson County R-1	Bear Creek K-8 School	956	1007	-5.06%
Denver County 1	Bear Valley International School	498	450	10.67%
Poudre R-1	Beattie Elementary School	320	363	-11.85%
Brush RE-2(J)	Beaver Valley Elementary School	324	331	-2.11%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Beech Street Preschool	80	116	-31.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Bell Middle School	778	927	-16.07%
Greeley 6	Bella Romero Academy of Applied Technology	1,019	1147	-11.16%
School District 27J	Belle Creek Charter School	600	689	-12.92%
Cherry Creek 5	Belleview Elementary School	481	586	-17.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Belmar School of Integrated Arts	211	232	-9.05%
Pueblo City 60	Belmont Elementary School	451	454	-0.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Ben Franklin Academy	905	930	-2.69%
Eaton RE-2	Benjamin Eaton Elementary School	400	388	3.09%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Elementary School	256	279	-8.24%
Poudre R-1	Bennett Elementary School	395	454	-13.00%
Bennett 29J	Bennett High School	403	361	11.63%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Intermediate School	239	256	-6.64%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Middle School	300	184	63.04%
Bennett 29J	Bennett Preschool	51	37	37.84%
District 49	Bennett Ranch Elementary School	383	357	7.28%
Jefferson County R-1	Bergen Meadow Primary School	281	330	-14.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Bergen Valley Intermediate School	226	280	-19.29%
Eagle County RE 50	Berry Creek Middle School	225	280	-19.64%
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud Early Childhood	29	-	-
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud Elementary School	472	486	-2.88%
Thompson R2-J	Berthoud High School	685	696	-1.58%
Pueblo City 60	Bessemer Elementary School	258	282	-8.51%
Poudre R-1	Bethke Elementary School	532	638	-16.61%
Bethune R-5	Bethune Public Schools	108	118	-8.47%
Pueblo County 70	Beulah Elementary School	85	86	-1.16%
Pueblo City 60	Beulah Heights Elementary School	308	371	-16.98%
Pueblo County 70	Beulah Middle School	45	66	-31.82%
Mapleton 1	Big Picture College and Career Academy	116	136	-14.71%
Thompson R2-J	Big Thompson Elementary School	195	222	-12.16%
Monte Vista C-8	Bill Metz Elementary School	270	357	-24.37%
Thompson R2-J	Bill Reed Middle School	542	673	-19.47%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Birch Elementary School	341	396	-13.89%
Cherry Creek 5	Black Forest Hills Elementary School	627	603	3.98%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Black Rock Elementary	577	579	-0.35%
Poudre R-1	Blevins Middle School	546	629	-13.20%
Jefferson County R-1	Blue Heron Elementary School	383	399	-4.01%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Blue Mountain Elementary	538	629	-14.47%
Poudre R-1	Boltz Middle School	623	627	-0.64%
Mesa County Valley 51	Bookcliff Middle School	545	590	-7.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Boston K-8 School	414	462	-10.39%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Community School/Integrated Studies	286	307	-6.84%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder High School	2,139	2153	-0.65%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Prep Charter High School	107	117	-8.55%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Boulder Universal	382	76	402.63%
Pueblo City 60	Bradford Elementary School	313	374	-16.31%
Jefferson County R-1	Bradford K8 North	315	352	-10.51%
Jefferson County R-1	Bradford K8 South	402	502	-19.92%
Denver County 1	Bradley International School	565	569	-0.70%
Jefferson County R-1	Brady Exploration School	212	395	-46.33%
Branson Reorganized 82	Branson School	83	67	23.88%
Branson Reorganized 82	Branson School Online	419	364	15.11%
School District 27J	Brantner Elementary School	698	693	0.72%
Summit RE-1	Breckenridge Elementary School	198	209	-5.26%
Greeley 6	Brentwood Middle School	604	687	-12.08%
Academy 20	Briargate Preschool	96	116	-17.24%
Harrison 2	Bricker Elementary School	267	346	-22.83%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Bridges	86	76	13.16%
Briggsdale RE-10	Briggsdale Elementary School	94	85	10.59%
Briggsdale RE-10	Briggsdale Undivided High School	92	99	-7.07%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Bright Horizons Preschool	27	-	-
School District 27J	Brighton High School	1,881	1816	3.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Bristol Elementary School	251	234	7.26%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Broadmoor Elementary School	323	342	-5.56%
Mesa County Valley 51	Broadway Elementary School	281	271	3.69%
School District 27J	Bromley East Charter School	1,175	1181	-0.51%
Denver County 1	Bromwell Elementary School	321	332	-3.31%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Broomfield Heights Middle School	516	564	-8.51%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Broomfield High School	1,607	1564	2.75%
Denver County 1	Brown International Academy	576	636	-9.43%
Denver County 1	Bruce Randolph School	731	777	-5.92%
Eagle County RE 50	Brush Creek Elementary School	387	389	-0.51%
Brush RE-2(J)	Brush High School	373	411	-9.25%
Brush RE-2(J)	Brush Middle School	315	301	4.65%
Denver County 1	Bryant Webster Dual Language ECE-8 School	369	413	-10.65%
Colorado Springs 11	Buena Vista Elementary School	198	218	-9.17%
Buena Vista R-31	Buena Vista High School	274	299	-8.36%
Buena Vista R-31	Buena Vista Middle School	226	213	6.10%
Douglas County Re 1	Buffalo Ridge Elementary School	462	442	4.52%
Cherry Creek 5	Buffalo Trail Elementary School	570	661	-13.77%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington Elementary School	325	353	-7.93%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Burlington Elementary School	342	427	-19.91%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington High School	201	203	-0.99%
Burlington RE-6J	Burlington Middle School	223	222	0.45%
Byers 32J	Byers Elementary School	265	317	-16.40%
Byers 32J	Byers Junior-Senior High School	249	240	3.75%
Monte Vista C-8	Byron Syring Delta Center	57	49	16.33%
Poudre R-1	Cache La Poudre Elementary School	301	357	-15.69%
Poudre R-1	Cache La Poudre Middle School	330	335	-1.49%
Garfield Re-2	Cactus Valley Elementary School	432	479	-9.81%
Calhan RJ-1	Calhan Elementary School	210	199	5.53%
Calhan RJ-1	Calhan Secondary School	236	153	54.25%
Valley RE-1	Caliche Elementary School	141	157	-10.19%
Valley RE-1	Caliche Junior-Senior High School	117	137	-14.60%
Valley RE-1	Campbell Elementary School	407	436	-6.65%
Jefferson County R-1	Campbell Elementary School	194	225	-13.78%
Campo RE-6	Campo Elementary School	31	21	47.62%
Campo RE-6	Campo Undivided High School	20	21	-4.76%
Cherry Creek 5	Campus Middle School	1,355	1516	-10.62%
Canon City RE-1	Canon City High School	964	1032	-6.59%
Canon City RE-1	Canon City Middle School	370	387	-4.39%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Canon Elementary School	117	139	-15.83%
Canon City RE-1	Canon Exploratory School	340	352	-3.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Cantril	15	25	-40.00%
Cherry Creek 5	Canyon Creek Elementary School	463	494	-6.28%
Charter School Institute	Caprock Academy	883	878	0.57%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Carbon Valley Academy	211	231	-8.66%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Carbondale Community Charter School	135	135	0.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Carbondale Middle School	348	369	-5.69%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Cardinal Community Academy Charter School	179	188	-4.79%
Mesa County Valley 51	Career Center Preschool	125	126	-0.79%
Denver County 1	Career Education Center Early College	490	491	-0.20%
Harrison 2	Career Readiness Academy	42	65	-35.38%
Clear Creek RE-1	Carlson Elementary School	138	169	-18.34%
Harrison 2	Carmel Community School	331	346	-4.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Carmody Middle School	640	784	-18.37%
Thompson R2-J	Carrie Martin Elementary School	268	273	-1.83%
Denver County 1	Carson Elementary School	391	465	-15.91%
Fountain 8	Carson Middle School	652	705	-7.52%
Colorado Springs 11	Carver Elementary School	213	272	-21.69%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Casey Middle School	499	639	-21.91%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle Rock Elementary School	400	424	-5.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle Rock Middle School	741	842	-12.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Castle View High School	2,136	2183	-2.15%
Denver County 1	Castro Elementary School	288	357	-19.33%
Pueblo County 70	Cedar Ridge Elementary School	481	485	-0.82%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge Elementary School	332	374	-11.23%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge High School	271	276	-1.81%
Delta County 50(J)	Cedaredge Middle School	192	214	-10.28%
North Conejos RE-1J	Centauri High School	325	301	7.97%
North Conejos RE-1J	Centauri Middle School	242	267	-9.36%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Centaurus High School	1,594	1453	9.70%
Denver County 1	Centennial A School for Expeditionary Learning	455	451	0.89%
Littleton 6	Centennial Academy of Fine Arts Education	373	499	-25.25%
Centennial BOCES	Centennial BOCES High School	102	103	-0.97%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Centennial Elementary	485	529	-8.32%
Greeley 6	Centennial Elementary School	440	458	-3.93%
Thompson R2-J	Centennial Elementary School	372	439	-15.26%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Centennial Elementary School	413	497	-16.90%
Harrison 2	Centennial Elementary School	343	439	-21.87%
Poudre R-1	Centennial High School	125	112	11.61%
Pueblo City 60	Centennial High School	870	994	-12.47%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Centennial Middle School	596	637	-6.44%
Montrose County RE-1J	Centennial Middle School	578	643	-10.11%
Centennial R-1	Centennial School	203	219	-7.31%
Denver County 1	Center for Talent Development at Greenlee	268	299	-10.37%
Center 26 JT	Center High School	148	133	11.28%
Center 26 JT	Center Virtual Academy	15	16	-6.25%
Adams County 14	Central Elementary School	432	442	-2.26%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Central Elementary School	345	402	-14.18%
Pueblo City 60	Central High School	892	800	11.50%
Mesa County Valley 51	Central High School	1,630	1647	-1.03%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Century Middle School	866	918	-5.66%
Buena Vista R-31	Chaffee County High School	25	38	-34.21%
Cherry Creek 5	Challenge School	534	528	1.14%
Douglas County Re 1	Challenge to Excellence Charter School	536	521	2.88%
Academy 20	Challenger Middle School	607	720	-15.69%
Douglas County Re 1	Chaparral High School	2,076	2193	-5.34%
Greeley 6	Chappelow K-8 Magnet School	672	686	-2.04%
Englewood 1	Charles Hay World School	338	332	1.81%
Denver County 1	Charles M. Schenck (CMS) Community School	305	321	-4.98%
Mesa County Valley 51	Chatfield Elementary School	415	425	-2.35%
Jefferson County R-1	Chatfield High School	1,791	1842	-2.77%
Pueblo City 60	Chavez/Huerta K-12 Preparatory Academy	1,025	1026	-0.10%
Denver County 1	Cheltenham Elementary School	273	333	-18.02%
Cheraw 31	Cheraw School	231	224	3.13%
Douglas County Re 1	Cherokee Trail Elementary School	579	564	2.66%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherokee Trail High School	2,833	2818	0.53%
Englewood 1	Cherrelyn Elementary School	228	233	-2.15%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek Charter Academy	571	570	0.18%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek Elevation	655	121	441.32%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Creek High School	3,809	3806	0.08%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Cherry Drive Elementary School	359	375	-4.27%
Cherry Creek 5	Cherry Hills Village Elementary School	507	531	-4.52%
Douglas County Re 1	Cherry Valley Elementary School	40	35	14.29%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain Elementary School	321	334	-3.89%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain High School	1,263	1286	-1.79%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School	557	597	-6.70%
Cheyenne County Re-5	Cheyenne Wells Elementary School	116	127	-8.66%
Cheyenne County Re-5	Cheyenne Wells Junior/High School	72	70	2.86%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Children's Kiva Montessori School	139	97	43.30%
Academy 20	Chinook Trail Elementary School	622	634	-1.89%
Academy 20	Chinook Trail Middle School	1,013	527	92.22%
Mesa County Valley 51	Chipeta Elementary School	395	435	-9.20%
Colorado Springs 11	Chipeta Elementary School	423	477	-11.32%
Cherry Creek 5	Cimarron Elementary School	398	463	-14.04%
Douglas County Re 1	Cimarron Middle	1,172	1293	-9.36%
Colorado Springs 11	CIVA Charter Academy	186	179	3.91%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	CIVICA Colorado	131	-	-
Englewood 1	Clayton Elementary School	365	420	-13.10%
Mapleton 1	Clayton Partnership School	407	474	-14.14%
Clear Creek RE-1	Clear Creek High School	237	216	9.72%
Clear Creek RE-1	Clear Creek Middle School	92	107	-14.02%
Douglas County Re 1	Clear Sky Elementary	682	744	-8.33%
Mesa County Valley 51	Clifton Elementary School	383	438	-12.56%
Lake County R-1	Cloud City High School	36	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Cloverleaf Home Education	201	307	-34.53%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Clyde Miller K-8	474	472	0.42%
Jefferson County R-1	Coal Creek Canyon K-8 Elementary School	118	149	-20.81%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Coal Creek Elementary School	371	389	-4.63%
Garfield Re-2	Coal Ridge High School	498	563	-11.55%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Coal Ridge Middle School	819	823	-0.49%
Denver County 1	Cole Arts and Science Academy	276	320	-13.75%
Denver County 1	Colfax Elementary School	255	293	-12.97%
Denver County 1	College View Elementary School	314	427	-26.46%
Jefferson County R-1	Collegiate Academy of Colorado	415	457	-9.19%
Denver County 1	Collegiate Preparatory Academy	287	364	-21.15%
Mapleton 1	Colorado Connections Academy	2,154	2274	-5.28%
Durango 9-R	Colorado Connections Academy @ Durango	1,157	810	42.84%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early College Fort Collins	1,249	1319	-5.31%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Aurora	451	343	31.49%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Douglas County	1,096	651	68.36%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Fort Collins West	514	35	1368.57%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Early Colleges Windsor	1,303	185	604.32%
Denver County 1	Colorado High School Charter	191	283	-32.51%
Denver County 1	Colorado High School Charter - GES	146	170	-14.12%
Charter School Institute	Colorado International Language Academy	308	381	-19.16%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Military Academy	768	509	50.88%
Byers 32J	Colorado Online High School	513	191	168.59%
Byers 32J	Colorado Online Middle School	420	200	110.00%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy Elementary School	1,294	714	81.23%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy High School	772	659	17.15%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Preparatory Academy Middle School	755	685	10.22%
Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind	Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind	162	189	-14.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Colorado Skies Academy	214	118	81.36%
Westminster Public Schools	Colorado Sports Leadership Academy	384	410	-6.34%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Springs Charter Academy	403	431	-6.50%
Charter School Institute	Colorado Springs Early Colleges	644	579	11.23%
Westminster Public Schools	Colorado STEM Academy	405	418	-3.11%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Colorado Summit Connections Academy	416	-	-
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy	454	237	91.56%
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy High School	369	357	3.36%
Byers 32J	Colorado Virtual Academy Middle School	125	135	-7.41%
Englewood 1	Colorado's Finest High School of Choice	234	299	-21.74%
Jefferson County R-1	Colorow Elementary School	189	206	-8.25%
Colorado Springs 11	Columbia Elementary School	285	308	-7.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Columbia Middle School	683	727	-6.05%
Denver County 1	Columbian Elementary School	217	241	-9.96%
Pueblo City 60	Columbian Elementary School	309	370	-16.49%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Columbine Elementary School	405	366	10.66%
Denver County 1	Columbine Elementary School	276	275	0.36%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Columbine Elementary School	248	288	-13.89%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Columbine Elementary School	412	494	-16.60%
Woodland Park Re-2	Columbine Elementary School	260	358	-27.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Columbine High School	1,707	1745	-2.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Columbine Hills Elementary School	309	321	-3.74%
Montrose County RE-1J	Columbine Middle School	504	517	-2.51%
Charter School Institute	Community Leadership Academy	322	456	-29.39%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Community Montessori School	260	309	-15.86%
Colorado Springs 11	Community Prep Charter School	253	228	10.96%
Denver County 1	Compass Academy	284	300	-5.33%
Poudre R-1	Compass Community Collaborative School	173	174	-0.57%
Jefferson County R-1	Compass Montessori - Golden Charter School	420	423	-0.71%
Jefferson County R-1	Compass Montessori - Wheat Ridge Charter School	288	286	0.70%
Denver County 1	Compassion Road Academy	69	96	-28.13%
Jefferson County R-1	Conifer Senior High School	815	873	-6.64%
Jefferson County R-1	Connections Learning Center on the Earle Johnson Campus	18	44	-59.09%
Thompson R2-J	Conrad Ball Middle School	333	457	-27.13%
Fountain 8	Conrad Early Learning Center	240	-	-
Denver County 1	Contemporary Learning Academy	94	124	-24.19%
Charter School Institute	Coperni 2	213	197	8.12%
Charter School Institute	Coperni 3	413	226	82.74%
Douglas County Re 1	Copper Mesa Elementary School	353	428	-17.52%
Jefferson County R-1	Coronado Elementary School	419	498	-15.86%
Colorado Springs 11	Coronado High School	1,325	1385	-4.33%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Coronado Hills Elementary School	455	578	-21.28%
Pueblo City 60	Corwin International Magnet School	512	597	-14.24%
Denver County 1	Cory Elementary School	396	410	-3.41%
Cotopaxi RE-3	Cotopaxi Elementary School	93	110	-15.45%
Cotopaxi RE-3	Cotopaxi Junior-Senior High School	115	119	-3.36%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Cotton Creek Elementary School	498	556	-10.43%
Cherry Creek 5	Cottonwood Creek Elementary School	577	653	-11.64%
Montrose County RE-1J	Cottonwood Elementary School	433	431	0.46%
Thompson R2-J	Cottonwood Plains Elementary School	394	419	-5.97%
Douglas County Re 1	Cougar Run Elementary School	364	441	-17.46%
Denver County 1	Cowell Elementary School	283	378	-25.13%
Douglas County Re 1	Coyote Creek Elementary School	403	408	-1.23%
Cherry Creek 5	Coyote Hills Elementary School	543	565	-3.89%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Coyote Ridge Elementary School	404	428	-5.61%
Thompson R2-J	Coyote Ridge Elementary School	283	362	-21.82%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Craig Middle School	454	493	-7.91%
Pueblo County 70	Craver Middle School	196	213	-7.98%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Crawford Elementary School	405	489	-17.18%
Denver County 1	Creativity Challenge Community	304	306	-0.65%
Creede School District	Creede School	78	81	-3.70%
Cherry Creek 5	Creekside Elementary School	590	647	-8.81%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Creekside Elementary School at Martin Park	343	390	-12.05%
Jefferson County R-1	Creighton Middle School	780	874	-10.76%
Cripple Creek-Victor RE-1	Cresson Elementary School	158	183	-13.66%
Salida R-32	Crest Academy	46	45	2.22%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Crest View Elementary School	448	537	-16.57%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Crested Butte Elementary School	334	342	-2.34%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Crested Butte Secondary School	421	431	-2.32%
Douglas County Re 1	Cresthill Middle School	738	776	-4.90%
Moffat 2	Crestone Charter School	83	88	-5.68%
Cripple Creek-Victor RE-1	Cripple Creek-Victor Junior-Senior High School	194	184	5.43%
Crowley County RE-1-J	Crowley County Elementary K-6	203	237	-14.35%
Crowley County RE-1-J	Crowley County Junior and Senior High School	202	188	7.45%
Charter School Institute	Crown Pointe Charter Academy	462	469	-1.49%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Crystal River Elementary School	374	420	-10.95%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer County Elementary School	171	200	-14.50%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer County High School	102	105	-2.86%
Custer County School District C-1	Custer Middle School	88	90	-2.22%
Jefferson County R-1	D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School	1,119	1035	8.12%
Widefield 3	D3 My Way Virtual School	343	-	-
Pueblo City 60	D60 Online School	353	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Dakota Ridge Senior High School	1,344	1447	-7.12%
Cherry Creek 5	Dakota Valley Elementary School	522	545	-4.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Dalton Elementary School	417	437	-4.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Daniel C Oakes High School--Castle Rock	137	158	-13.29%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Dartmouth Elementary School	407	375	8.53%
Douglas County Re 1	DC Montessori Charter School	498	556	-10.43%
Denver County 1	DCIS at Ford	483	507	-4.73%
Denver County 1	DCIS at Montbello	946	925	2.27%
De Beque 49JT	De Beque PK-12 School District 49JT	172	164	4.88%
Jefferson County R-1	Deane Elementary School	305	414	-26.33%
Platte Canyon 1	Deer Creek Elementary School	417	451	-7.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Deer Creek Middle School	603	752	-19.81%
Deer Trail 26J	Deer Trail Elementary School	173	145	19.31%
Deer Trail 26J	Deer Trail Junior-Senior High School	122	108	12.96%
Upper Rio Grande School District C-7	Del Norte Elementary School	225	229	-1.75%
Upper Rio Grande School District C-7	Del Norte High Jr./Sr. High School	178	192	-7.29%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Academy of Applied Learning	23	27	-14.81%
Denver County 1	Delta High School	109	101	7.92%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta High School	622	605	2.81%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Middle School	511	494	3.44%
Delta County 50(J)	Delta Online Learning Academy	40	-	-
Denver County 1	Denison Montessori School	363	396	-8.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Dennison Elementary School	609	629	-3.18%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for 21st-Century Learning at Wyman	159	205	-22.44%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for International Studies	516	672	-23.21%
Denver County 1	Denver Center for International Studies at Fairmont	354	420	-15.71%
Denver County 1	Denver Discovery School	113	199	-43.22%
Denver County 1	Denver Green School Northfield	530	138	284.06%
Denver County 1	Denver Green School Southeast	494	573	-13.79%
Denver County 1	Denver Justice High School	131	109	20.18%
Denver County 1	Denver Language School	885	869	1.84%
Denver County 1	Denver Montessori Junior/Senior High School	225	240	-6.25%
Denver County 1	Denver Online	307	287	6.97%
Denver County 1	Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design	132	175	-24.57%
Denver County 1	Denver School of the Arts	1,090	1110	-1.80%
Pueblo County 70	Desert Sage Elementary School	375	405	-7.41%
Julesburg Re-1	Destinations Career Academy of Colorado	545	545	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Devinny Elementary School	466	475	-1.89%
Summit RE-1	Dillon Valley Elementary School	425	426	-0.23%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus Elementary School	522	525	-0.57%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus High School	1,123	1158	-3.02%
Academy 20	Discovery Canyon Campus Middle School	761	815	-6.63%
Widefield 3	Discovery High School	54	71	-23.94%
Greeley 6	District 6 Online Academy	628	-	-
Durango 9-R	District 9-R Shared School	156	147	6.12%
Colorado Springs 11	Doherty High School	1,916	1992	-3.82%
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Elementary School	284	360	-21.11%
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Middle School	209	-	-
Dolores RE-4A	Dolores Secondary School	168	274	-38.69%
Denver County 1	Dora Moore ECE-8 School	360	352	2.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Doral Academy of Colorado	168	193	-12.95%
Greeley 6	Dos Rios Elementary School	462	495	-6.67%
Mesa County Valley 51	Dos Rios Elementary School	300	331	-9.37%
Douglas County Re 1	Douglas County High School	1,820	1808	0.66%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Douglass Elementary School	313	400	-21.75%
Academy 20	Douglass Valley Elementary School	310	316	-1.90%
Denver County 1	Doull Elementary School	323	416	-22.36%
Dolores County RE No.2	Dove Creek High School	138	122	13.11%
Dolores County RE No.2	Dove's Nest Early Care and Education Center	1	-	-
Denver County 1	Downtown Denver Expeditionary School	274	344	-20.35%
Denver County 1	Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College	1,144	1279	-10.56%
Jefferson County R-1	Drake Junior High School	935	920	1.63%
Cherry Creek 5	Dry Creek Elementary School	341	406	-16.01%
Denver County 1	DSST Middle School @ Noel Campus	456	309	47.57%
Denver County 1	DSST: Byers High School	557	529	5.29%
Denver County 1	DSST: Byers Middle School	476	482	-1.24%
Denver County 1	DSST: Cole High School	357	362	-1.38%
Denver County 1	DSST: Cole Middle School	262	346	-24.28%
Denver County 1	DSST: College View High School	581	539	7.79%
Denver County 1	DSST: College View Middle School	484	471	2.76%
Denver County 1	DSST: Conservatory Green High School	576	442	30.32%
Denver County 1	DSST: Conservatory Green Middle School	447	472	-5.30%
Denver County 1	DSST: Elevate Northeast High School	160	-	-
Denver County 1	DSST: Green Valley Ranch High School	565	556	1.62%
Denver County 1	DSST: Green Valley Ranch Middle School	479	482	-0.62%
Denver County 1	DSST: Montview High School	570	577	-1.21%
Denver County 1	DSST: Montview Middle School	475	474	0.21%
Mesa County Valley 51	Dual Immersion Academy School	283	309	-8.41%
Poudre R-1	Dunn Elementary School	383	409	-6.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Dunstan Middle School	830	941	-11.80%
Adams County 14	Dupont Elementary School	408	477	-14.47%
Durango 9-R	Durango Big Picture High School	84	76	10.53%
Durango 9-R	Durango High School	1,350	1227	10.02%
Jefferson County R-1	Dutch Creek Elementary School	276	284	-2.82%
Eads RE-1	Eads Elementary School	132	119	10.92%
Eads RE-1	Eads High School	44	49	-10.20%
Eads RE-1	Eads Middle School	43	35	22.86%
Douglas County Re 1	Eagle Academy	126	136	-7.35%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle County Charter Academy	360	346	4.05%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Eagle Crest Elementary School	426	583	-26.93%
School District 27J	Eagle Ridge Academy	526	522	0.77%
Douglas County Re 1	Eagle Ridge Elementary School	597	627	-4.78%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Early College High School	3	23	-86.96%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Elementary School	382	422	-9.48%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley High School	1,072	959	11.78%
Eagle County RE 50	Eagle Valley Middle School	350	377	-7.16%
Cherry Creek 5	Eaglecrest High School	3,134	3063	2.32%
Fountain 8	Eagleside Elementary School	525	591	-11.17%
Denver County 1	Eagleton Elementary School	258	309	-16.50%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Eagleview Elementary School	518	561	-7.66%
Academy 20	Eagleview Middle School	954	1017	-6.19%
Douglas County Re 1	Early Childhood Center	95	93	2.15%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Early Childhood Center	153	176	-13.07%
Montrose County RE-1J	Early Childhood Center	192	310	-38.06%
Sheridan 2	Early Childhood Education Center	106	162	-34.57%
Greeley 6	Early College Academy	328	279	17.56%
Charter School Institute	Early College of Arvada	251	335	-25.07%
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Francis M. Day	26	-	-
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Gregory Hill	219	248	-11.69%
Charter School Institute	Early Learning Center at New Legacy Charter School	3	8	-62.50%
Westminster Public Schools	Early Learning Center at Perl Mack	14	22	-36.36%
Littleton 6	East Elementary School	202	283	-28.62%
East Grand 2	East Grand Middle School	302	326	-7.36%
Denver County 1	East High School	2,589	2556	1.29%
Pueblo City 60	East High School	934	986	-5.27%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	East Middle School	861	913	-5.70%
Mesa County Valley 51	East Middle School	406	455	-10.77%
Colorado Springs 11	Eastlake High School of Colorado Springs	96	163	-41.10%
Cherry Creek 5	Eastridge Community Elementary School	780	886	-11.96%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton Elementary School	404	414	-2.42%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton High School	587	573	2.44%
Eaton RE-2	Eaton Middle School	488	464	5.17%
Greeley 6	ECC Aims District 6 Preschool	150	140	7.14%
Douglas County Re 1	eDCSD	34	35	-2.86%
Jefferson County R-1	Edgewater Elementary School	285	376	-24.20%
Denver County 1	Edison Elementary School	522	559	-6.62%
Colorado Springs 11	Edison Elementary School	273	323	-15.48%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Elementary School	45	54	-16.67%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Junior-Senior High School	38	66	-42.42%
Edison 54 JT	Edison Prep	54	123	-56.10%
Park County RE-2	Edith Teter Elementary School	211	250	-15.60%
Academy 20	Edith Wolford Elementary School	335	378	-11.38%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Edna and John W. Mosley P-8	940	1038	-9.44%
Eagle County RE 50	Edwards Early Learning Center	98	-	-
Eagle County RE 50	Edwards Elementary School	299	279	7.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Eiber Elementary School	281	314	-10.51%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Eisenhower Elementary School	353	402	-12.19%
School District 27J	Elaine S. Padilla	386	-	-
Elbert 200	Elbert Elementary School	127	110	15.45%
Elbert 200	Elbert Junior-Senior High School	154	144	6.94%
Douglas County Re 1	Eldorado Elementary School	420	451	-6.87%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Eldorado K-8 School	663	841	-21.17%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth High School	663	657	0.91%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth Middle School	428	404	5.94%
Elizabeth School District	Elizabeth Running Creek Preschool	72	78	-7.69%
Garfield Re-2	Elk Creek Elementary	250	288	-13.19%
Jefferson County R-1	Elk Creek Elementary School	358	389	-7.97%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Elkhart Elementary School	489	569	-14.06%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Elementary School	524	586	-10.58%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Middle School	202	250	-19.20%
Ellicott 22	Ellicott Senior High School	276	306	-9.80%
Denver County 1	Ellis Elementary School	375	388	-3.35%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Emerald Elementary School	383	429	-10.72%
Denver County 1	Emily Griffith High School	258	385	-32.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Emory Elementary School	386	441	-12.47%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Empower Community High School	171	120	42.50%
Academy 20	Encompass Heights Elementary School	399	-	-
Cherry Creek 5	Endeavor Academy	240	283	-15.19%
Englewood 1	Englewood Early Childhood Education Center at Maddox	217	230	-5.65%
Englewood 1	Englewood High School	548	554	-1.08%
Englewood 1	Englewood Leadership Academy	93	79	17.72%
Englewood 1	Englewood Middle School	214	282	-24.11%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie Elementary School	357	355	0.56%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie High School	1,713	1467	16.77%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Erie Middle School	782	826	-5.33%
Durango 9-R	Escalante Middle School	522	516	1.16%
Denver County 1	Escalante-Biggs Academy	322	322	0.00%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park High School	375	351	6.84%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park K-5 School	424	477	-11.11%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park Middle School	227	267	-14.98%
Estes Park R-3	Estes Park Options School	32	56	-42.86%
Littleton 6	Euclid Middle School	764	774	-1.29%
Pueblo City 60	Eva R Baca Elementary School	232	279	-16.85%
District 49	Evans CPCD Head Start	1	-	-
District 49	Evans Elementary School	500	621	-19.48%
Jefferson County R-1	Evergreen High School	975	1096	-11.04%
Jefferson County R-1	Evergreen Middle School	588	689	-14.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Everitt Middle School	521	601	-13.31%
Denver County 1	Excel Academy	257	275	-6.55%
Jefferson County R-1	Excel Academy Charter School	506	516	-1.94%
Mapleton 1	Explore Pk-8	578	425	36.00%
Academy 20	Explorer Elementary School	494	511	-3.33%
Poudre R-1	Eyestone Elementary School	609	646	-5.73%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Facilities with District Run Education	12	19	-36.84%
Jefferson County R-1	Fairmount Elementary School	592	621	-4.67%
Westminster Public Schools	Fairview Elementary School	299	326	-8.28%
Denver County 1	Fairview Elementary School	174	211	-17.54%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Fairview High School	1,977	2131	-7.23%
Jefferson County R-1	Falcon Bluffs Middle School	620	663	-6.49%
Cherry Creek 5	Falcon Creek Middle School	736	880	-16.36%
District 49	Falcon Elementary School of Technology	259	283	-8.48%
District 49	Falcon High School	1,279	1240	3.15%
District 49	Falcon Homeschool Program	531	422	25.83%
District 49	Falcon Middle School	924	1021	-9.50%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Fall River Elementary School	482	526	-8.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Family Learning Center	1	-	-
Denver County 1	Farrell B. Howell ECE-8 School	588	710	-17.18%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Federal Heights Elementary School	427	502	-14.94%
Littleton 6	Field Elementary School	283	292	-3.08%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Fireside Elementary School	463	484	-4.34%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Firestone Charter Academy	626	601	4.16%
Trinidad 1	Fisher's Peak Elementary School	374	292	28.08%
Jefferson County R-1	Fitzmorris Elementary School	155	211	-26.54%
Platte Canyon 1	Fitzsimmons Middle School	169	198	-14.65%
Arriba-Flagler C-20	Flagler Public School	139	152	-8.55%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Flagstaff Charter Academy	774	921	-15.96%
Douglas County Re 1	Flagstone Elementary School	432	489	-11.66%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Flatirons Elementary School	182	211	-13.74%
Frenchman RE-3	Fleming Elementary School	135	133	1.50%
Frenchman RE-3	Fleming High School	82	74	10.81%
Denver County 1	Florence Crittenton High School	92	105	-12.38%
Fremont RE-2	Florence Jr./Sr. High School	598	580	3.10%
Durango 9-R	Florida Mesa Elementary School	257	296	-13.18%
Denver County 1	Florida Pitt-Waller ECE-8 School	812	845	-3.91%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Foothill Elementary School	434	457	-5.03%
Academy 20	Foothills Elementary School	398	440	-9.55%
Jefferson County R-1	Foothills Elementary School	254	293	-13.31%
Denver County 1	Force Elementary School	325	392	-17.09%
Littleton 6	Ford Elementary	653	-	-
Poudre R-1	Fort Collins High School	1,991	1856	7.27%
Poudre R-1	Fort Collins Montessori School	219	141	55.32%
Durango 9-R	Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary School	93	110	-15.45%
Sheridan 2	Fort Logan Northgate	457	541	-15.53%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Fort Lupton High School	726	692	4.91%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Fort Lupton Middle School	457	476	-3.99%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Fort Morgan High School	904	938	-3.62%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Fort Morgan Middle School	722	713	1.26%
Poudre R-1	Fossil Ridge High School	2,263	2118	6.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Foster Dual Language PK-8	358	453	-20.97%
School District 27J	Foundations Academy	753	751	0.27%
Pueblo City 60	Fountain International Magnet School	293	341	-14.08%
Fountain 8	Fountain Middle School	1,087	1084	0.28%
Fountain 8	Fountain-Fort Carson High School	1,969	1829	7.65%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler Elementary School	200	194	3.09%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler High School	116	112	3.57%
Fowler R-4J	Fowler Junior High School	50	53	-5.66%
Douglas County Re 1	Fox Creek Elementary School	474	528	-10.23%
Cherry Creek 5	Fox Hollow Elementary School	572	657	-12.94%
Harrison 2	Fox Meadow Middle School	499	583	-14.41%
Cherry Creek 5	Fox Ridge Middle School	1,125	1085	3.69%
Greeley 6	Franklin Middle School	482	552	-12.68%
Pueblo City 60	Franklin School of Innovation	323	390	-17.18%
Douglas County Re 1	Franktown Elementary School	363	364	-0.27%
East Grand 2	Fraser Valley Elementary School	241	267	-9.74%
Greeley 6	Fred Tjardes School of Innovation	123	127	-3.15%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Frederick Senior High School	1,331	1181	12.70%
Jefferson County R-1	Free Horizon Montessori	440	457	-3.72%
Colorado Springs 11	Freedom Elementary School	384	448	-14.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Fremont Elementary School	234	197	18.78%
Fremont RE-2	Fremont Elementary School	502	509	-1.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Fremont Elementary School	394	486	-18.93%
Denver County 1	French American School of Denver	97	-	-
Widefield 3	French Elementary School	549	605	-9.26%
Summit RE-1	Frisco Elementary School	248	265	-6.42%
Greeley 6	Frontier Charter Academy	1,621	1628	-0.43%
Academy 20	Frontier Elementary School	266	313	-15.02%
Douglas County Re 1	Frontier Valley Elementary School	414	488	-15.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita 8/9 School	740	803	-7.85%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita Middle School	530	609	-12.97%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruita Monument High School	1,382	1334	3.60%
Mesa County Valley 51	Fruitvale Elementary School	399	412	-3.16%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Fulton Academy of Excellence	369	432	-14.58%
Eaton RE-2	Galeton Elementary School	115	129	-10.85%
Colorado Springs 11	Galileo School of Math and Science	435	506	-14.03%
Denver County 1	Garden Place Academy	345	358	-3.63%
Huerfano Re-1	Gardner Valley School	82	81	1.23%
Thompson R2-J	Garfield Elementary School	211	255	-17.25%
Delta County 50(J)	Garnet Mesa Elementary School	490	556	-11.87%
Woodland Park Re-2	Gateway Elementary School	301	345	-12.75%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Gateway High School	1,433	1511	-5.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Gateway School	14	29	-51.72%
Genoa-Hugo C113	Genoa-Hugo School	213	220	-3.18%
Denver County 1	George Washington High School	1,262	1188	6.23%
Clear Creek RE-1	Georgetown Community School	105	107	-1.87%
Harrison 2	Giberson Elementary School	325	385	-15.58%
Weld County RE-1	Gilcrest Elementary School	200	189	5.82%
Gilpin County RE-1	Gilpin County Elementary School	203	223	-8.97%
Gilpin County RE-1	Gilpin County Undivided High School	234	275	-14.91%
Denver County 1	Girls Athletic Leadership School High School	110	133	-17.29%
Denver County 1	Girls Athletic Leadership School Middle School	227	297	-23.57%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Glacier Peak Elementary School	440	444	-0.90%
Jefferson County R-1	Glennon Heights Elementary School	156	195	-20.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs Elementary School	457	509	-10.22%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs High School	1,015	961	5.62%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Glenwood Springs Middle School	422	484	-12.81%
Mapleton 1	Global Intermediate Academy	337	280	20.36%
Mapleton 1	Global Leadership Academy	311	266	16.92%
Mapleton 1	Global Primary Academy	289	289	0.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Global Village Academy - Douglas County	383	389	-1.54%
Charter School Institute	Global Village Academy - Northglenn	852	883	-3.51%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Global Village Academy Aurora	855	947	-9.71%
Colorado Springs 11	Globe Charter School	95	176	-46.02%
District 49	GOAL Academy	5,328	4965	7.31%
Littleton 6	Goddard Middle School	589	774	-23.90%
Denver County 1	Godsman Elementary School	320	362	-11.60%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Gold Camp Elementary School	479	472	1.48%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Gold Hill Elementary School	17	20	-15.00%
Douglas County Re 1	Gold Rush Elementary	663	715	-7.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Golden High School	1,363	1372	-0.66%
Charter School Institute	Golden View Classical Academy	726	678	7.08%
Denver County 1	Goldrick Elementary School	328	347	-5.48%
Pueblo City 60	Goodnight Elementary School	571	639	-10.64%
Jefferson County R-1	Governor's Ranch Elementary School	331	356	-7.02%
Garfield Re-2	Graham Mesa Elementary School	419	429	-2.33%
Granada RE-1	Granada Elementary School	111	113	-1.77%
Granada RE-1	Granada Undivided High School	85	84	1.19%
East Grand 2	Granby Elementary School	331	335	-1.19%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand Junction High School	1,479	1452	1.86%
Delta County 50(J)	Grand Mesa Choice Academy	85	65	30.77%
Plateau Valley 50	Grand Mesa High School	13	102	-87.25%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand Mesa Middle School	604	644	-6.21%
Widefield 3	Grand Mountain School	1,027	901	13.98%
District 49	Grand Peak Academy	618	760	-18.68%
Mesa County Valley 51	Grand River Academy	513	328	56.40%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley Center for Family Learning	223	341	-34.60%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley High School	326	351	-7.12%
Garfield 16	Grand Valley Middle School	267	282	-5.32%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Grand View Elementary	438	387	13.18%
Windsor RE-4	Grandview Elementary School	763	614	24.27%
Cherry Creek 5	Grandview High School	2,851	2947	-3.26%
Denver County 1	Grant Beacon Middle School	429	459	-6.54%
Colorado Springs 11	Grant Elementary School	361	467	-22.70%
Denver County 1	Grant Ranch ECE-8 School	344	378	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Great Work Montessori	237	210	12.86%
Greeley 6	Greeley Central High School	1,566	1532	2.22%
Greeley 6	Greeley West High School	1,732	1666	3.96%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Green Acres Elementary School	294	304	-3.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Gables Elementary School	259	209	23.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Mountain Elementary School	209	228	-8.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Green Mountain High School	1,081	1124	-3.83%
Denver County 1	Green Valley Elementary School	636	683	-6.88%
Cherry Creek 5	Greenwood Elementary School	372	406	-8.37%
South Conejos RE-10	Guadalupe Elementary School	85	84	1.19%
Park County RE-2	Guffey Charter School	25	38	-34.21%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison Elementary School	533	528	0.95%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison High School	393	394	-0.25%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Gunnison Middle School	285	282	1.06%
Denver County 1	Gust Elementary School	573	630	-9.05%
Eagle County RE 50	Gypsum Creek Middle School	345	378	-8.73%
Eagle County RE 50	Gypsum Elementary School	351	323	8.67%
Pueblo City 60	Haaff Elementary School	293	325	-9.85%
Jefferson County R-1	Hackberry Hill Elementary School	367	409	-10.27%
Valley RE-1	Hagen Early Education Center	108	171	-36.84%
Denver County 1	Hallett Academy	262	289	-9.34%
Denver County 1	Hamilton Middle School	701	765	-8.37%
Hanover 28	Hanover Junior-Senior High School	155	133	16.54%
Adams County 14	Hanson Elementary School	267	395	-32.41%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Harmony Ridge P-8	729	-	-
Thompson R2-J	Harold Ferguson High School	114	122	-6.56%
Poudre R-1	Harris Bilingual Elementary School	314	326	-3.68%
Westminster Public Schools	Harris Park Elementary School	244	266	-8.27%
Harrison 2	Harrison High School	1,129	1075	5.02%
Canon City RE-1	Harrison School	603	670	-10.00%
Center 26 JT	Haskin Elementary School	290	310	-6.45%
Haxtun RE-2J	Haxtun Elementary School	245	265	-7.55%
Haxtun RE-2J	Haxtun High School	96	80	20.00%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden High School	99	109	-9.17%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden Middle School	94	92	2.17%
Hayden RE-1	Hayden Valley Elementary School	243	219	10.96%
Greeley 6	Heath Middle School	696	751	-7.32%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Heatherwood Elementary School	263	294	-10.54%
Greeley 6	Heiman Elementary School	712	708	0.56%
Strasburg 31J	Hemphill Middle School	281	251	11.95%
School District 27J	Henderson Elementary School	357	362	-1.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Henry Elementary School	367	353	3.97%
Pueblo City 60	Heritage Elementary School	303	327	-7.34%
Cherry Creek 5	Heritage Elementary School	297	341	-12.90%
Douglas County Re 1	Heritage Elementary School	372	439	-15.26%
Cherry Creek 5	Heritage Heights Academy	393	327	20.18%
Littleton 6	Heritage High School	1,724	1691	1.95%
Hi-Plains R-23	Hi-Plains School District R-23	153	130	17.69%
Westminster Public Schools	Hidden Lake High School	489	358	36.59%
Boulder Valley Re 2	High Peaks Elementary School	259	296	-12.50%
Cherry Creek 5	High Plains Elementary School	514	566	-9.19%
Academy 20	High Plains Elementary School	255	322	-20.81%
Thompson R2-J	High Plains School	450	568	-20.77%
Charter School Institute	High Point Academy	715	715	0.00%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland Elementary School	450	419	7.40%
Littleton 6	Highland Elementary School	322	301	6.98%
Garfield Re-2	Highland Elementary School	463	492	-5.89%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland High School	305	285	7.02%
Ault-Highland RE-9	Highland Middle School	258	239	7.95%
Pueblo City 60	Highland Park Elementary School	390	487	-19.92%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Highlands Elementary School	249	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Highlands Ranch High School	1,581	1680	-5.89%
Denver County 1	Highline Academy Northeast	547	546	0.18%
Denver County 1	Highline Academy Southeast	528	520	1.54%
Cherry Creek 5	Highline Community Elementary School	412	493	-16.43%
Denver County 1	Hill Campus of Arts and Sciences	717	844	-15.05%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hillcrest Elementary School	391	433	-9.70%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Hinkley High School	1,948	2091	-6.84%
Hoehne Reorganized 3	Hoehne Schools	314	365	-13.97%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Hoff Elementary School	312	224	39.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Holly Hills Elementary School	490	542	-9.59%
Holly RE-3	Holly School	275	304	-9.54%
Denver County 1	Holm Elementary School	458	475	-3.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Holmes Middle School	536	624	-14.10%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Alternative School	25	10	150.00%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Elementary School	292	313	-6.71%
Holyoke Re-1J	Holyoke Senior High School	261	264	-1.14%
Academy 20	Home School Academy	563	531	6.03%
Eagle County RE 50	Homestake Peak School	521	611	-14.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Homestead Elementary School	385	473	-18.60%
Douglas County Re 1	HOPE Online Learning Academy High School	1,600	590	171.19%
Douglas County Re 1	HOPE Online Learning Academy Middle School	414	489	-15.34%
Littleton 6	Hopkins Elementary School	339	346	-2.02%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Horizon High School	1,999	2059	-2.91%
District 49	Horizon Middle School	709	769	-7.80%
Cherry Creek 5	Horizon Middle School	859	983	-12.61%
Salida R-32	Horizons Exploratory Academy	29	32	-9.38%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Horizons K-8 School	348	348	0.00%
Delta County 50(J)	Hotchkiss Elementary School	300	340	-11.76%
Colorado Springs 11	Howbert Elementary School	251	286	-12.24%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Hudson Elementary School	297	320	-7.19%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hulstrom Options K-8 School	638	678	-5.90%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Hunters Glen Elementary School	408	471	-13.38%
Jefferson County R-1	Hutchinson Elementary School	277	260	6.54%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Hygiene Elementary School	326	351	-7.12%
Idalia RJ-3	Idalia Elementary School	95	110	-13.64%
Idalia RJ-3	Idalia Junior-Senior High School	91	90	1.11%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio Elementary School	265	320	-17.19%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio High School	215	221	-2.71%
Ignacio 11 JT	Ignacio Middle School	160	184	-13.04%
Mesa County Valley 51	Independence Academy	470	415	13.25%
Cherry Creek 5	Independence Elementary School	401	501	-19.96%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Indian Peaks Elementary School	252	311	-18.97%
Cherry Creek 5	Indian Ridge Elementary School	474	514	-7.78%
Cherry Creek 5	Infinity Middle School	787	770	2.21%
School District 27J	Innovations & Options	199	293	-32.08%
Centennial BOCES	Innovative Connections High School	27	36	-25.00%
District 49	Inspiration View Elementary School	537	379	41.69%
Denver County 1	Inspire Elementary	537	347	54.76%
Denver County 1	International Academy of Denver at Harrington	167	221	-24.43%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Iowa Elementary School	457	492	-7.11%
Poudre R-1	Irish Elementary School	379	390	-2.82%
Douglas County Re 1	Iron Horse Elementary School	457	460	-0.65%
Pueblo City 60	Irving Elementary School	332	353	-5.95%
Jefferson County R-1	Irwin Preschool	20	84	-76.19%
Denver County 1	Isabella Bird Community School	454	529	-14.18%
Westminster Public Schools	Iver C. Ranum Middle School	376	592	-36.49%
Thompson R2-J	Ivy Stockwell Elementary School	389	407	-4.42%
Colorado Springs 11	Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy	518	578	-10.38%
Colorado Springs 11	Jackson Elementary School	352	370	-4.86%
Greeley 6	Jackson Elementary School	390	421	-7.36%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Jamaica Child Development Center	151	203	-25.62%
Charter School Institute	James Irwin Charter Academy	308	326	-5.52%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter Elementary School	531	535	-0.75%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter High School	416	441	-5.67%
Harrison 2	James Irwin Charter Middle School	459	471	-2.55%
Widefield 3	James Madison Charter Academy School	96	108	-11.11%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Jamestown Elementary School	20	20	0.00%
Widefield 3	Janitell Junior High School	626	740	-15.41%
Jefferson County R-1	Jeffco Transition Services School	129	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Jeffco Virtual Academy	1,446	304	375.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy	1,155	1051	9.90%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy Elementary	764	749	2.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Academy High School	427	414	3.14%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson County Open Elementary School	228	245	-6.94%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson County Open Secondary	315	318	-0.94%
Rocky Ford R-2	Jefferson Intermediate School	214	226	-5.31%
Greeley 6	Jefferson Junior/Senior High	577	634	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Jefferson Junior/Senior High School	627	672	-6.70%
Colorado Springs 11	Jenkins Middle School	763	894	-14.65%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Jewell Elementary School	523	412	26.94%
Denver County 1	Joe Shoemaker School	438	471	-7.01%
Westminster Public Schools	John E. Flynn A Marzano Academy	326	291	12.03%
Denver County 1	John F Kennedy High School	908	926	-1.94%
Denver County 1	John H. Amesse Elementary	389	442	-11.99%
Huerfano Re-1	John Mall High School	123	145	-15.17%
School District 27J	John W Thimmig Elementary School	553	641	-13.73%
Littleton 6	John Wesley Powell Middle School	611	824	-25.85%
Montrose County RE-1J	Johnson Elementary School	510	511	-0.20%
Denver County 1	Johnson Elementary School	314	326	-3.68%
Poudre R-1	Johnson Elementary School	374	449	-16.70%
Fountain 8	Jordahl Elementary School	554	601	-7.82%
Westminster Public Schools	Josephine Hodgkins Leadership Academy	636	651	-2.30%
Academy 20	Journey K8	303	137	121.17%
Julesburg Re-1	Julesburg Elementary School	122	156	-21.79%
Julesburg Re-1	Julesburg High School	108	128	-15.63%
Las Animas RE-1	Jump Start Learning Center	43	30	43.33%
Mesa County Valley 51	Juniper Ridge Community School	414	359	15.32%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Justice High Charter School	82	98	-16.33%
Denver County 1	Kaiser Elementary School	227	329	-31.00%
Karval RE-23	Karval Elementary School	23	37	-37.84%
Karval RE-23	Karval Junior-Senior High School	20	18	11.11%
Garfield Re-2	Kathryn Senor Elementary School	288	309	-6.80%
Adams County 14	Kearney Middle School	728	794	-8.31%
Colorado Springs 11	Keller Elementary School	380	451	-15.74%
Adams County 14	Kemp Elementary School	452	501	-9.78%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Kemper Elementary School	333	379	-12.14%
Jefferson County R-1	Ken Caryl Middle School	785	878	-10.59%
Jefferson County R-1	Kendallvue Elementary School	314	348	-9.77%
Jefferson County R-1	Kendrick Lakes Elementary School	369	393	-6.11%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Kenneth Homyak PK-8	298	281	6.05%
Yuma 1	Kenneth P Morris Elementary School	304	320	-5.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Kenton Elementary School	417	487	-14.37%
Denver County 1	Kepner Beacon Middle School	428	398	7.54%
Kim Reorganized 88	Kim Elementary School	11	22	-50.00%
Kim Reorganized 88	Kim Undivided High School	21	26	-19.23%
Poudre R-1	Kinard Core Knowledge Middle School	830	840	-1.19%
Colorado Springs 11	King Elementary School	306	344	-11.05%
Clear Creek RE-1	King-Murphy Elementary School	124	118	5.08%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa Elementary School	147	145	1.38%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa High School	74	60	23.33%
Kiowa C-2	Kiowa Middle School	55	47	17.02%
Denver County 1	KIPP Denver Collegiate High School	488	489	-0.20%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy	565	543	4.05%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Denver Middle School	459	492	-6.71%
Denver County 1	KIPP Northeast Elementary	500	484	3.31%
Denver County 1	KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy	385	430	-10.47%
Denver County 1	KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary	155	115	34.78%
Kit Carson R-1	Kit Carson Elementary School	43	47	-8.51%
Kit Carson R-1	Kit Carson Junior-Senior High School	57	62	-8.06%
Denver County 1	Knapp Elementary School	394	471	-16.35%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Knowledge Quest Academy	407	402	1.24%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Kohl Elementary School	319	384	-16.93%
Poudre R-1	Kruse Elementary School	454	530	-14.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Kullerstrand Elementary School	189	202	-6.44%
Denver County 1	Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy	873	920	-5.11%
Charter School Institute	Kwiyagat Community Academy	27	-	-
Jefferson County R-1	Kyffin Elementary School	472	464	1.72%
North Conejos RE-1J	La Jara Elementary School	209	229	-8.73%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Intermediate School	418	450	-7.11%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Jr/Sr High School	530	653	-18.84%
East Otero R-1	La Junta Primary School	296	319	-7.21%
La Veta Re-2	La Veta Elementary School	88	94	-6.38%
La Veta Re-2	La Veta Junior-Senior High School	119	118	0.85%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Lafayette Elementary School	477	503	-5.17%
Hinsdale County RE 1	Lake City Community School	77	87	-11.49%
Lake County R-1	Lake County Elementary School	297	217	36.87%
Lake County R-1	Lake County High School	419	467	-10.28%
Lake County R-1	Lake County Intermediate School	258	297	-13.13%
Park County RE-2	Lake George Charter School	137	153	-10.46%
Denver County 1	Lake Middle School	547	402	36.07%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Lake Preschool	73	86	-15.12%
Jefferson County R-1	Lakewood High School	1,991	2046	-2.69%
Lamar Re-2	Lamar High School	466	441	5.67%
Lamar Re-2	Lamar Middle School	343	329	4.26%
School District 27J	Landmark Academy at Reunion	761	749	1.60%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Lansing Elementary Community School	342	383	-10.70%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Laredo Child Development Center	232	261	-11.11%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Laredo Elementary School	396	441	-10.20%
Cherry Creek 5	Laredo Middle School	974	1052	-7.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Larkspur Elementary School	216	237	-8.86%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas Elementary School	245	241	1.66%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas High School	115	138	-16.67%
Las Animas RE-1	Las Animas Junior High School	72	73	-1.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Lasley Elementary School	293	412	-28.88%
Poudre R-1	Laurel Elementary School	434	447	-2.91%
Thompson R2-J	Laurene Edmondson Elementary School	252	223	13.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Lawrence Elementary School	261	287	-9.06%
Thompson R2-J	LEAP School	112	176	-36.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Leawood Elementary School	337	363	-7.16%
Elizabeth School District	Legacy Academy	499	465	7.31%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Legacy Elementary School	446	528	-15.53%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Legacy High School	2,376	2445	-2.82%
Denver County 1	Legacy Options High School	132	95	38.95%
Academy 20	Legacy Peak Elementary School	621	558	11.29%
Douglas County Re 1	Legacy Point Elementary School	353	358	-1.40%
Douglas County Re 1	Legend High School	2,250	2215	1.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Leman Classical Academy	1,038	748	38.77%
Denver County 1	Lena Archuleta Elementary School	454	493	-7.91%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Leo William Butler Elementary School	410	404	1.49%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Leroy Drive Elementary School	387	393	-1.53%
Poudre R-1	Lesher Middle School	778	792	-1.77%
Adams County 14	Lester R Arnold High School	203	253	-19.76%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Letford Elementary School	424	484	-12.40%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Lewis-Arriola Elementary School	121	128	-5.47%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer Elementary School	403	475	-15.16%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer High School	1,152	1132	1.77%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Lewis-Palmer Middle School	797	906	-12.03%
Poudre R-1	Liberty Common Charter School	1,150	1148	0.17%
Academy 20	Liberty High School	1,665	1656	0.54%
Cherry Creek 5	Liberty Middle School	892	1056	-15.53%
Pueblo County 70	Liberty Point Elementary School	406	365	11.23%
Pueblo County 70	Liberty Point International School	527	552	-4.53%
Liberty J-4	Liberty School	64	68	-5.88%
District 49	Liberty Tree Academy	648	501	29.34%
Limon RE-4J	Limon Elementary School	199	182	9.34%
Limon RE-4J	Limon Junior-Senior High School	249	268	-7.09%
Jefferson County R-1	Lincoln Charter Academy	779	804	-3.11%
Thompson R2-J	Lincoln Elementary School	226	248	-8.87%
Delta County 50(J)	Lincoln Elementary School	475	534	-11.05%
Denver County 1	Lincoln Elementary School	293	344	-14.83%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Lincoln High School	43	44	-2.27%
Poudre R-1	Lincoln Middle School	539	607	-11.20%
Mesa County Valley 51	Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School	365	351	3.99%
Mesa County Valley 51	Lincoln Park Preschool	21	29	-27.59%
Canon City RE-1	Lincoln School of Science and Technology	259	282	-8.16%
Poudre R-1	Linton Elementary School	375	414	-9.42%
Jefferson County R-1	Little Elementary School	246	304	-19.08%
Yuma 1	Little Indians Preschool	64	64	0.00%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Little Trappers Preschool	155	182	-14.84%
Littleton 6	Littleton Academy	455	463	-1.73%
Littleton 6	Littleton High School	1,293	1242	4.11%
Littleton 6	Littleton Prep Charter School	542	584	-7.19%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Lochbuie Elementary School	277	296	-6.42%
Littleton 6	Lois Lenski Elementary School	409	541	-24.40%
Mesa County Valley 51	Loma Elementary School	237	304	-22.04%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Elementary School	46	55	-16.36%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Middle School	37	34	8.82%
Lone Star 101	Lone Star Undivided High School	42	41	2.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Lone Tree Elementary	377	421	-10.45%
Salida R-32	Longfellow Elementary School	430	428	0.47%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longmont Estates Elementary School	309	358	-13.69%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longmont High School	1,275	1261	1.11%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Longs Peak Middle School	391	458	-14.63%
Jefferson County R-1	Longview High School	16	49	-67.35%
Poudre R-1	Lopez Elementary School	362	427	-15.22%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Lotus School for Excellence	956	916	4.37%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Louisville Elementary School	454	516	-12.02%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Louisville Middle School	590	653	-9.65%
Thompson R2-J	Loveland Classical School	949	917	3.49%
Thompson R2-J	Loveland High School	1,520	1595	-4.70%
Denver County 1	Lowry Elementary School	463	525	-11.81%
Thompson R2-J	Lucile Erwin Middle School	816	898	-9.13%
Jefferson County R-1	Lukas Elementary School	247	324	-23.77%
Jefferson County R-1	Lumberg Elementary School	316	400	-21.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Lyons Elementary School	285	312	-8.65%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Lyons Middle/Senior High School	366	397	-7.81%
Greeley 6	Madison Elementary School	394	433	-9.01%
Colorado Springs 11	Madison Elementary School	303	347	-12.68%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Malley Drive Elementary School	442	444	-0.45%
Douglas County Re 1	Mammoth Heights Elementary	677	668	1.35%
North Conejos RE-1J	Manassa Elementary School	203	228	-10.96%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Manaugh Elementary School	229	264	-13.26%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Early Learning Center	32	43	-25.58%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Elementary School	179	209	-14.35%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos High School	142	138	2.90%
Mancos Re-6	Mancos Middle School	132	117	12.82%
Jefferson County R-1	Mandalay Middle School	486	575	-15.48%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Manhattan Middle School of the Arts and Academics	430	541	-20.52%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs Elementary School	405	453	-10.60%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs High School	465	474	-1.90%
Manitou Springs 14	Manitou Springs Middle School	282	355	-20.56%
Colorado Springs 11	Mann Middle School	397	434	-8.53%
Jefferson County R-1	Manning Options School	678	675	0.44%
Denver County 1	Manual High School	313	299	4.68%
Manzanola 3J	Manzanola Elementary School	50	68	-26.47%
Manzanola 3J	Manzanola Junior-Senior High School	101	101	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Maple Grove Elementary School	326	337	-3.26%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Mapleton Early Childhood Center	92	109	-15.60%
Mapleton 1	Mapleton Early College High School	279	266	4.89%
Mapleton 1	Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts	541	702	-22.93%
Greeley 6	Maplewood Elementary School	548	611	-10.31%
Gunnison Watershed RE1J	Marble Charter School	42	48	-12.50%
Denver County 1	Marie L. Greenwood Academy	527	555	-5.05%
Denver County 1	Marrama Elementary School	478	491	-2.65%
Monte Vista C-8	Marsh Elementary School	150	157	-4.46%
Jefferson County R-1	Marshdale Elementary School	307	314	-2.23%
Widefield 3	Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School	471	467	0.86%
Greeley 6	Martinez Elementary School	438	497	-11.87%
Colorado Springs 11	Martinez Elementary School	384	448	-14.29%
Thompson R2-J	Mary Blair Elementary School	188	261	-27.97%
School District 27J	Mary E Pennock Elementary School	642	643	-0.16%
Denver County 1	Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy	154	163	-5.52%
Denver County 1	Maxwell Elementary School	651	649	0.31%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Maybell School	19	13	46.15%
Colorado Springs 11	McAuliffe Elementary	485	555	-12.61%
Denver County 1	McAuliffe International School	1,558	1589	-1.95%
Denver County 1	McAuliffe Manual Middle School	260	310	-16.13%
McClave Re-2	McClave Elementary School	124	139	-10.79%
McClave Re-2	McClave Undivided High School	113	90	25.56%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	McElwain Elementary School	362	431	-16.01%
Denver County 1	McGlone Academy	885	913	-3.07%
Poudre R-1	McGraw Elementary School	400	435	-8.05%
Canon City RE-1	McKinley Elementary School	223	175	27.43%
Denver County 1	McKinley-Thatcher Elementary School	228	228	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	McLain Community High School	397	392	1.28%
Denver County 1	McMeen Elementary School	555	501	10.78%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead Elementary School	717	640	12.03%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead High School	1,083	1147	-5.58%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mead Middle School	533	478	11.51%
Mapleton 1	Meadow Community School	411	503	-18.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Meadow Point Elementary School	422	498	-15.26%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Meadow Ridge Elementary School	378	424	-10.85%
Douglas County Re 1	Meadow View Elementary School	514	488	5.33%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Meadowlark School	668	680	-1.76%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Meadowood Child Development Center	213	277	-23.10%
Greeley 6	Meeker Elementary School	479	504	-4.96%
Meeker RE-1	Meeker Elementary School	340	375	-9.33%
Meeker RE-1	Meeker High School	226	197	14.72%
Jefferson County R-1	Meiklejohn Elementary	469	520	-9.81%
Lamar Re-2	Melvin Hendrickson Development Center	113	123	-8.13%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Meridian Elementary School	549	609	-9.85%
District 49	Meridian Ranch Elementary School	663	677	-2.07%
Buffalo RE-4J	Merino Elementary School	159	166	-4.22%
Buffalo RE-4J	Merino Junior Senior High School	146	136	7.35%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Merit Academy	287	-	-
Denver County 1	Merrill Middle School	601	561	7.13%
Fountain 8	Mesa Elementary School	539	524	2.86%
Westminster Public Schools	Mesa Elementary School	297	305	-2.62%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Mesa Elementary School	247	261	-5.36%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Mesa Elementary School	288	343	-16.03%
Douglas County Re 1	Mesa Middle School	998	865	15.38%
Widefield 3	Mesa Ridge High School	1,234	1325	-6.87%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mesa Valley Community School	400	396	1.01%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mesa View Elementary School	359	384	-6.51%
Westminster Public Schools	Metropolitan Arts Academy	344	332	3.61%
Miami/Yoder 60 JT	Miami-Yoder Middle/High School	166	151	9.93%
Miami/Yoder 60 JT	Miami/Yoder Elementary School	147	137	7.30%
East Grand 2	Middle Park High School	412	426	-3.29%
Colorado Springs 11	Midland Elementary School	128	189	-32.28%
Adams County 14	Mildred L Sanville Preschool	53	83	-36.14%
Durango 9-R	Miller Middle School	470	506	-7.11%
Jefferson County R-1	Miller Special Education	100	101	-0.99%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Milliken Elementary School	479	617	-22.37%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Milliken Middle School	661	814	-18.80%
Pueblo City 60	Minnequa Elementary School	299	447	-33.11%
Cherry Creek 5	Mission Viejo Elementary School	552	576	-4.17%
Jefferson County R-1	Mitchell Elementary School	531	570	-6.84%
Colorado Springs 11	Mitchell High School	1,040	1174	-11.41%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Moffat County High School	566	549	3.10%
Moffat 2	Moffat Prek-12 School	134	139	-3.60%
Jefferson County R-1	Molholm Elementary School	254	332	-23.49%
Adams County 14	Monaco Elementary School	249	287	-13.24%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Monarch High School	1,515	1664	-8.95%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Monarch K-8 School	697	765	-8.89%
Denver County 1	Monarch Montessori	220	205	7.32%
Greeley 6	Monfort Elementary School	456	478	-4.60%
Thompson R2-J	Monroe Elementary School	287	242	18.60%
Colorado Springs 11	Monroe Elementary School	364	433	-15.94%
Denver County 1	Montbello Career and Technical High School	95	72	31.94%
Denver County 1	Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment	352	400	-12.00%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista Middle School	239	221	8.14%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista On-Line Academy	93	114	-18.42%
Monte Vista C-8	Monte Vista Senior High School	265	270	-1.85%
Mapleton 1	Monterey Community School	366	-	-
Harrison 2	Monterey Elementary School	248	323	-23.22%
Charter School Institute	Montessori del Mundo Charter School	315	359	-12.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Montessori Peaks Charter Academy	425	476	-10.71%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Montezuma-Cortez High School	634	628	0.96%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Montezuma-Cortez Middle School	539	594	-9.26%
Montrose County RE-1J	Montrose High School	1,396	1321	5.68%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Montview Math & Health Sciences Elementary School	304	352	-13.64%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Monument Charter Academy	693	-	-
Lewis-Palmer 38	Monument Charter Academy Secondary School	475	966	-50.83%
Mesa County Valley 51	Monument Ridge Elementary School	328	-	-
Charter School Institute	Monument View Montessori Charter School	61	46	32.61%
Littleton 6	Moody Elementary School	291	356	-18.26%
Jefferson County R-1	Moore Middle School	492	583	-15.61%
Denver County 1	Morey Middle School	418	354	18.08%
Jefferson County R-1	Mortensen Elementary School	317	369	-14.09%
Pueblo City 60	Morton Elementary School	366	441	-17.01%
Jefferson County R-1	Mount Carbon Elementary School	398	443	-10.16%
Mesa County Valley 51	Mount Garfield Middle School	565	641	-11.86%
Canon City RE-1	Mount View Core Knowledge Charter School	252	252	0.00%
Charter School Institute	Mountain Middle School	275	245	12.24%
Jefferson County R-1	Mountain Phoenix Community School	620	664	-6.63%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Mountain Range High School	1,808	1892	-4.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain Ridge Middle School	925	1088	-14.98%
Academy 20	Mountain Ridge Middle School	766	989	-22.55%
Poudre R-1	Mountain Sage Community School	287	318	-9.75%
Charter School Institute	Mountain Song Community School	403	370	8.92%
Mountain Valley RE 1	Mountain Valley School	185	170	8.82%
District 49	Mountain View Academy	354	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain View Elementary School	330	314	5.10%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Mountain View Elementary School	569	598	-4.85%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Mountain View Elementary School	303	322	-5.90%
Windsor RE-4	Mountain View Elementary School	457	492	-7.11%
Academy 20	Mountain View Elementary School	558	604	-7.62%
Thompson R2-J	Mountain View High School	1,196	1172	2.05%
Harrison 2	Mountain Vista Community School	576	550	4.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Mountain Vista Elementary School	661	685	-3.50%
Douglas County Re 1	Mountain Vista High School	2,365	2381	-0.67%
Harrison 2	Mountain Vista Homeschool Academy	324	321	0.93%
Fountain 8	Mountainside Elementary School	426	473	-9.94%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Mrachek Middle School	904	974	-7.19%
Denver County 1	Munroe Elementary School	375	421	-10.93%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Murphy Creek K-8 School	671	724	-7.32%
Thompson R2-J	Namaqua Elementary School	243	314	-22.61%
West End RE-2	Naturita Elementary School	138	132	4.55%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nederland Elementary School	202	253	-20.16%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nederland Middle-Senior High School	253	247	2.43%
Durango 9-R	Needham Elementary School	410	427	-3.98%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Nevin Platt Middle School	454	532	-14.66%
Jefferson County R-1	New America School	113	152	-25.66%
Charter School Institute	New America School - Aurora	169	285	-40.70%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	New America School - Thornton	244	337	-27.60%
Jefferson County R-1	New Classical Academy at Vivian	144	140	2.86%
Mesa County Valley 51	New Emerson School at Columbus	141	141	0.00%
Charter School Institute	New Legacy Charter School	84	98	-14.29%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	New Meridian High School	98	114	-14.04%
Academy 20	New Summit Charter Academy	601	554	8.48%
Thompson R2-J	New Vision Charter School	960	713	34.64%
Boulder Valley Re 2	New Vista High School	286	326	-12.27%
Denver County 1	Newlon Elementary School	301	375	-19.73%
Littleton 6	Newton Middle School	738	631	16.96%
Colorado Springs 11	Nikola Tesla Education Opportunity Center	263	249	5.62%
Mesa County Valley 51	Nisley Elementary School	345	416	-17.07%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Niwot Elementary School	420	483	-13.04%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Niwot High School	1,287	1177	9.35%
Denver County 1	Noel Community Arts School	390	425	-8.24%
Jefferson County R-1	Normandy Elementary School	305	363	-15.98%
Jefferson County R-1	North Arvada Middle School	479	602	-20.43%
North Conejos RE-1J	North Conejos Alternative Program	26	42	-38.10%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork High School	300	172	74.42%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork Montessori @ Crawford	130	145	-10.34%
Delta County 50(J)	North Fork School of Integrated Studies	118	75	57.33%
Denver County 1	North High School	1,711	1350	26.74%
Denver County 1	North High School Engagement Center	96	104	-7.69%
Pueblo County 70	North Mesa Elementary School	420	451	-6.87%
Colorado Springs 11	North Middle School	550	667	-17.54%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	North Middle School Health Sciences and Technology Campus	633	651	-2.76%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	North Mor Elementary School	391	451	-13.30%
North Park R-1	North Park School	173	179	-3.35%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	North Routt Charter School	114	99	15.15%
Douglas County Re 1	North Star Academy	673	667	0.90%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	North Star Elementary School	360	418	-13.88%
Weld County RE-1	North Valley Middle School	235	245	-4.08%
Mapleton 1	North Valley School for Young Adults	90	64	40.63%
Denver County 1	Northeast Early College	576	463	24.41%
Douglas County Re 1	Northeast Elementary School	289	288	0.35%
School District 27J	Northeast Elementary School	524	584	-10.27%
Denver County 1	Northfield High School	1,570	990	58.59%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Northglenn High School	2,012	2064	-2.52%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Northglenn Middle School	773	856	-9.70%
Pueblo City 60	Northmoor Preschool	32	59	-45.76%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Northridge Elementary School	313	328	-4.57%
Douglas County Re 1	Northridge Elementary School	594	632	-6.01%
Greeley 6	Northridge High School	1,199	1157	3.63%
Montrose County RE-1J	Northside Elementary School	337	353	-4.53%
Norwood R-2J	Norwood Public Schools	199	199	0.00%
West End RE-2	Nucla High School	63	70	-10.00%
West End RE-2	Nucla Middle School	27	32	-15.63%
Poudre R-1	O'Dea Elementary School	442	469	-5.76%
Harrison 2	Oak Creek Elementary School	190	208	-8.65%
Montrose County RE-1J	Oak Grove Elementary School	390	399	-2.26%
Denver County 1	Oakland Elementary	277	279	-0.72%
Jefferson County R-1	Oberon Middle School	674	742	-9.16%
Colorado Springs 11	Odyssey Early College and Career Options	304	277	9.75%
District 49	Odyssey Elementary School	397	455	-12.75%
Denver County 1	Odyssey School of Denver	278	233	19.31%
Poudre R-1	Olander Elementary School	363	433	-16.17%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe Elementary School	466	434	7.37%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe High School	272	283	-3.89%
Montrose County RE-1J	Olathe Middle School	239	231	3.46%
Denver County 1	Omar D Blair Charter School	679	716	-5.17%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Options School	796	984	-19.11%
Cherry Creek 5	Options School	535	668	-19.91%
Mesa County Valley 51	Orchard Avenue Elementary School	361	419	-13.84%
Mesa County Valley 51	Orchard Mesa Middle School	467	488	-4.30%
Westminster Public Schools	Orchard Park Academy	529	353	49.86%
Alamosa RE-11J	Ortega Middle School	537	519	3.47%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Orton Academy	317	-	-
Harrison 2	Otero Elementary School	283	317	-10.73%
School District 27J	Otho E Stuart Middle School	741	791	-6.32%
Otis R-3	Otis Elementary School	96	105	-8.57%
Otis R-3	Otis Junior-Senior High School	115	111	3.60%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Elementary School	86	105	-18.10%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Middle School	62	13	376.92%
Ouray R-1	Ouray Senior High School	41	52	-21.15%
Cherry Creek 5	Outback Preschool	89	79	12.66%
Cherry Creek 5	Overland High School	2,159	2379	-9.25%
School District 27J	Overland Trail Middle School	546	619	-11.79%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Peak Open School	122	102	19.61%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs Elementary School	541	598	-9.53%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs High School	470	490	-4.08%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	Pagosa Springs Middle School	525	552	-4.89%
Mesa County Valley 51	Palisade High School	1,108	1091	1.56%
Denver County 1	Palmer Elementary School	258	285	-9.47%
Colorado Springs 11	Palmer High School	1,553	1622	-4.25%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Palmer Lake Elementary School	303	361	-16.07%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Palmer Ridge High School	1,210	1218	-0.66%
Harrison 2	Panorama Middle School	469	619	-24.23%
Delta County 50(J)	Paonia Elementary School	253	213	18.78%
West End RE-2	Paradox Valley Charter School	44	38	15.79%
Pueblo City 60	Paragon Learning Center	364	187	94.65%
Pueblo City 60	Paragon Preschool	126	-	-
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Paris Elementary School	288	355	-18.87%
Durango 9-R	Park Elementary School	411	421	-2.38%
Denver County 1	Park Hill School	684	720	-5.00%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Park Lane Elementary School	255	293	-12.97%
Pueblo City 60	Park View Elementary School	292	369	-20.87%
Douglas County Re 1	Parker Core Knowledge Charter School	703	702	0.14%
Douglas County Re 1	Parker Performing Arts	657	735	-10.61%
Lamar Re-2	Parkview Elementary School	259	292	-11.30%
Rangely RE-4	Parkview Elementary School	225	265	-15.09%
Jefferson County R-1	Parmalee Elementary School	261	313	-16.61%
Jefferson County R-1	Parr Elementary School	245	312	-21.47%
Denver County 1	Pascual Ledoux Academy	205	228	-10.09%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Pathways Future Center	386	304	26.97%
Fountain 8	Patriot Elementary School	576	644	-10.56%
District 49	Patriot High School	78	103	-24.27%
Jefferson County R-1	Patterson International School	357	453	-21.19%
Pawnee RE-12	Pawnee School PK-12	70	82	-14.63%
Littleton 6	Peabody Elementary School	156	379	-58.84%
Jefferson County R-1	Peak Expeditionary - Pennington	228	197	15.74%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Peak to Peak Charter School	1,448	1450	-0.14%
Montrose County RE-1J	Peak Virtual Academy	254	185	37.30%
Cherry Creek 5	Peakview Elementary School	542	572	-5.24%
Huerfano Re-1	Peakview School	307	315	-2.54%
Mesa County Valley 51	Pear Park Elementary School	453	450	0.67%
Jefferson County R-1	Peck Elementary School	166	241	-31.12%
Plateau RE-5	Peetz Elementary School	109	105	3.81%
Plateau RE-5	Peetz Junior-Senior High School	51	60	-15.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Peiffer Elementary School	234	262	-10.69%
Fremont RE-2	Penrose Elementary School	326	309	5.50%
Colorado Springs 11	Penrose Elementary School	349	404	-13.61%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Peoria Elementary School	365	456	-19.96%
Weld County RE-1	Pete Mirich Elementary School	378	394	-4.06%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton College Academy	28	-	-
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Elementary School	252	269	-6.32%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Junior High School	95	90	5.56%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Online Academy	29	31	-6.45%
Peyton 23 Jt	Peyton Senior High School	210	236	-11.02%
District 49	Pikes Peak Early College	134	179	-25.14%
Harrison 2	Pikes Peak Elementary School	307	355	-13.52%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Pikes Peak Online School	392	778	-49.61%
District 49	Pikes Peak School Expeditionary Learning	392	407	-3.69%
Academy 20	Pine Creek High School	1,808	1631	10.85%
Douglas County Re 1	Pine Grove Elementary School	510	587	-13.12%
Douglas County Re 1	Pine Lane Elementary	774	756	2.38%
Cherry Creek 5	Pine Ridge Elementary School	754	771	-2.20%
Widefield 3	Pinello Elementary School	286	322	-11.18%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Pinon Valley Elementary School	297	315	-5.71%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Pioneer Bilingual Elementary School	481	485	-0.82%
Douglas County Re 1	Pioneer Elementary School	438	483	-9.32%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Pioneer Elementary School	281	330	-14.85%
Academy 20	Pioneer Elementary School	334	407	-17.94%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Pioneer Ridge Elementary School	619	591	4.74%
District 49	Pioneer Technology and Arts Academy	220	-	-
Denver County 1	Place Bridge Academy	660	851	-22.44%
Plainview RE-2	Plainview Elementary School	97	30	223.33%
Plainview RE-2	Plainview Junior-Senior High School	40	27	48.15%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley Elementary School	145	123	17.89%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley High School	112	101	10.89%
Plateau Valley 50	Plateau Valley Junior High School	35	68	-48.53%
Platte Canyon 1	Platte Canyon High School	251	240	4.58%
Douglas County Re 1	Platte River Charter Academy	543	565	-3.89%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley Elementary School	521	507	2.76%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley High School	329	336	-2.08%
Platte Valley RE-7	Platte Valley Middle School	228	250	-8.80%
Weld County RE-1	Platteville Elementary School	329	367	-10.35%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Pleasant View Elementary School	33	31	6.45%
Pueblo County 70	Pleasant View Middle School	443	448	-1.12%
Denver County 1	Polaris Elementary School	330	330	0.00%
Poudre R-1	Polaris Expeditionary Learning School	389	400	-2.75%
Cherry Creek 5	Polton Community Elementary School	463	544	-14.89%
Mesa County Valley 51	Pomona Elementary School	351	333	5.41%
Montrose County RE-1J	Pomona Elementary School	334	388	-13.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Pomona High School	1,185	1317	-10.02%
Thompson R2-J	Ponderosa Elementary	390	402	-2.99%
Cherry Creek 5	Ponderosa Elementary School	517	618	-16.34%
Douglas County Re 1	Ponderosa High School	1,464	1440	1.67%
Poudre R-1	Poudre Community Academy	274	256	7.03%
Poudre R-1	Poudre High School	1,961	1865	5.15%
Jefferson County R-1	Powderhorn Elementary School	448	541	-17.19%
District 49	Power Technical Early College	340	317	7.26%
Strasburg 31J	Prairie Creek High School	16	12	33.33%
Douglas County Re 1	Prairie Crossing Elementary School	699	701	-0.29%
Prairie RE-11	Prairie Elementary School	89	110	-19.09%
Hanover 28	Prairie Heights Elementary School	128	120	6.67%
Greeley 6	Prairie Heights Middle School	587	653	-10.11%
Academy 20	Prairie Hills Elementary School	398	405	-1.73%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Prairie Hills Elementary School	435	495	-12.12%
Prairie RE-11	Prairie Junior-Senior High School	102	112	-8.93%
Cherry Creek 5	Prairie Middle School	1,479	1630	-9.26%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Prairie Ridge Elementary School	430	454	-5.29%
School District 27J	Prairie View High School	1,724	1771	-2.65%
School District 27J	Prairie View Middle School	654	611	7.04%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Prairie Winds Elementary School	335	352	-4.83%
Pueblo County 70	Prairie Winds Elementary School	433	482	-10.17%
Denver County 1	Prep Academy	43	72	-40.28%
Mapleton 1	Preschool on Poze	192	-	-
Poudre R-1	Preston Middle School	982	1132	-13.25%
Primero Reorganized 2	Primero Elementary School	116	106	9.43%
Primero Reorganized 2	Primero Junior-Senior High School	112	94	19.15%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett Elementary School	35	28	25.00%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett High School	19	21	-9.52%
Pritchett RE-3	Pritchett Middle School	12	11	9.09%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Prospect Ridge Academy	1,463	1392	5.10%
Jefferson County R-1	Prospect Valley Elementary School	414	453	-8.61%
Poudre R-1	PSD Global Academy	496	266	86.47%
Poudre R-1	PSD Mountain Schools	109	120	-9.17%
Poudre R-1	PSD Options School	61	134	-54.48%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo Academy of Arts	595	688	-13.52%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo Charter School for the Arts & Sciences	539	454	18.72%
Education reEnvisioned BOCES	Pueblo Classical Academy	123	-	-
Pueblo County 70	Pueblo County High School	1,187	1109	7.03%
Pueblo City 60	Pueblo School for Arts & Sciences at Fulton Heights	247	227	8.81%
Pueblo County 70	Pueblo West High School	1,401	1394	0.50%
Poudre R-1	Putnam Elementary School	316	330	-4.24%
Colorado Springs 11	Queen Palmer Elementary School	172	233	-26.18%
Mesa County Valley 51	R-5 High School	274	273	0.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Ralston Elementary School	252	275	-8.36%
Jefferson County R-1	Ralston Valley Senior High School	1,813	1843	-1.63%
Academy 20	Rampart High School	1,455	1625	-10.46%
Academy 20	Ranch Creek Elementary	550	559	-1.61%
Douglas County Re 1	Ranch View Middle School	820	795	3.14%
Windsor RE-4	Range View Elementary	715	746	-4.16%
Rangely RE-4	Rangely Junior/Senior High School	269	253	6.32%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Rangeview High School	2,107	2253	-6.48%
Lewis-Palmer 38	Ray E Kilmer Elementary School	377	383	-1.57%
Denver County 1	Reach Charter School	118	140	-15.71%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Canyon High School	160	189	-15.34%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Red Hawk Elementary	614	629	-2.38%
Cherry Creek 5	Red Hawk Ridge Elementary School	540	618	-12.62%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Hill Elementary School	355	355	0.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Red Rocks Elementary School	265	288	-7.99%
Eagle County RE 50	Red Sandstone Elementary School	257	197	30.46%
Mesa County Valley 51	Redlands Middle School	535	600	-10.83%
Douglas County Re 1	Redstone Elementary School	417	488	-14.55%
District 49	Remington Elementary School	628	654	-3.98%
Douglas County Re 1	Renaissance Expedition Learn Outward Bound School	389	395	-1.52%
Douglas County Re 1	Renaissance Secondary School	330	327	0.92%
Denver County 1	Respect Academy	93	90	3.33%
School District 27J	Reunion Elementary School	790	724	9.12%
Revere School District	Revere Elementary	73	85	-14.12%
Revere School District	Revere Junior-Senior High School	60	54	11.11%
Charter School Institute	Ricardo Flores Magon Academy	251	261	-3.83%
Poudre R-1	Rice Elementary School	521	482	8.09%
Poudre R-1	Ridgeview Classical Charter Schools	706	690	2.32%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Ridgeview Elementary School	291	286	1.75%
District 49	Ridgeview Elementary School	572	684	-16.37%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway Elementary School	155	173	-10.40%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway High School	107	107	0.00%
Ridgway R-2	Ridgway Middle School	73	74	-1.35%
Poudre R-1	Riffenburgh Elementary School	458	557	-17.77%
Garfield Re-2	Rifle High School	779	773	0.78%
Garfield Re-2	Rifle Middle School	633	635	-0.31%
Mesa County Valley 51	Rim Rock Elementary School	327	624	-47.60%
Denver County 1	RiseUp Community School	97	129	-24.81%
Pueblo City 60	Risley International Academy of Innovation	403	447	-9.84%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Riverdale Elementary School	403	460	-12.39%
School District 27J	Riverdale Ridge High School	1,332	889	49.83%
Garfield Re-2	Riverside School	474	463	2.38%
Durango 9-R	Riverview Elementary School	444	467	-4.93%
Thompson R2-J	Riverview PK-8	490	-	-
Roaring Fork RE-1	Riverview School	364	364	0.00%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Roaring Fork High School	385	385	0.00%
Denver County 1	Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy	78	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Rock Canyon High School	2,376	2310	2.86%
Douglas County Re 1	Rock Ridge Elementary School	469	534	-12.17%
Academy 20	Rockrimmon Elementary School	354	356	-0.56%
Rocky Ford R-2	Rocky Ford Junior/Senior High School	310	327	-5.20%
Douglas County Re 1	Rocky Heights Middle School	1,225	1346	-8.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen	376	320	17.50%
District 49	Rocky Mountain Classical Academy	1,096	1102	-0.54%
District 49	Rocky Mountain Classical Academy Homeschool	479	515	-6.99%
Jefferson County R-1	Rocky Mountain Deaf School	72	62	16.13%
Mesa County Valley 51	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	443	474	-6.54%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	353	400	-11.75%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Rocky Mountain Elementary School	320	386	-17.10%
Poudre R-1	Rocky Mountain High School	2,087	2024	3.11%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Berkeley	323	304	6.25%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Creekside	581	608	-4.44%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Rocky Mountain Prep: Fletcher	545	545	0.00%
Denver County 1	Rocky Mountain Prep: Southwest	413	490	-15.71%
Expeditionary BOCES	Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning	393	368	6.79%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Rocky Top Middle School	1,029	1120	-8.13%
School District 27J	Rodger Quist Middle School	916	766	19.58%
Colorado Springs 11	Rogers Elementary School	294	353	-16.71%
Cherry Creek 5	Rolling Hills Elementary School	565	551	2.54%
Pueblo City 60	Roncalli Stem Academy	470	540	-12.96%
Jefferson County R-1	Rooney Ranch Elementary School	469	525	-10.67%
Colorado Springs 11	Roosevelt Charter Academy	444	582	-23.71%
Johnstown-Milliken RE-5J	Roosevelt High School	1,062	1061	0.09%
Adams County 14	Rose Hill Elementary School	348	379	-8.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Rose Stein International Elementary	273	286	-4.55%
Charter School Institute	Ross Montessori School	310	292	6.16%
Douglas County Re 1	Roxborough Elementary School	371	375	-1.07%
Douglas County Re 1	Roxborough Intermediate	406	392	3.57%
Colorado Springs 11	Rudy Elementary School	349	331	5.44%
Elizabeth School District	Running Creek Elementary School	305	298	2.35%
Littleton 6	Runyon Elementary School	450	461	-2.39%
Colorado Springs 11	Russell Middle School	563	617	-8.75%
Jefferson County R-1	Ryan Elementary School	349	378	-7.67%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Ryan Elementary School	485	551	-11.98%
Pueblo County 70	Rye Elementary School	299	346	-13.58%
Pueblo County 70	Rye High School	252	216	16.67%
Greeley 6	S. Christa McAuliffe STEM Academy	885	868	1.96%
Colorado Springs 11	Sabin Middle School	659	774	-14.86%
Denver County 1	Sabin World School	613	696	-11.93%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Sable Elementary School	402	417	-3.60%
Douglas County Re 1	Saddle Ranch Elementary School	341	434	-21.43%
Douglas County Re 1	Sage Canyon Elementary	584	745	-21.61%
Cherry Creek 5	Sagebrush Elementary School	424	420	0.95%
Douglas County Re 1	Sagewood Middle School	805	884	-8.94%
Greeley 6	Salida del Sol Academy	593	665	-10.83%
Salida R-32	Salida Early Childhood Center	66	86	-23.26%
Salida R-32	Salida High School	391	368	6.25%
Salida R-32	Salida Middle School	351	372	-5.65%
Charter School Institute	Salida Montessori Charter School	117	86	36.05%
Denver County 1	Samuels Elementary School	456	491	-7.13%
Archuleta County 50 Jt	San Juan Mountain School	54	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Sanborn Elementary School	265	372	-28.76%
Douglas County Re 1	Sand Creek Elementary School	382	454	-15.86%
District 49	Sand Creek High School	1,146	1133	1.15%
Harrison 2	Sand Creek International School	590	505	16.83%
Littleton 6	Sandburg Elementary School	468	441	6.12%
Denver County 1	Sandra Todd-Williams Academy	130	135	-3.70%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Sandrock Elementary	313	309	1.29%
Sanford 6J	Sanford Elementary School	221	220	0.45%
Sanford 6J	Sanford Junior/Senior High School	148	133	11.28%
Sangre De Cristo Re-22J	Sangre de Cristo Elementary School	123	136	-9.56%
Sangre De Cristo Re-22J	Sangre de Cristo Undivided High School	123	149	-17.45%
Thompson R2-J	Sarah Milner Elementary School	280	258	8.53%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Elementary School	186	196	-5.10%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Junior High School	48	54	-11.11%
Sargent RE-33J	Sargent Senior High School	96	104	-7.69%
Mesa County Valley 51	Scenic Elementary School	246	245	0.41%
Denver County 1	Schmitt Elementary School	199	269	-26.02%
Greeley 6	Scott Elementary School	512	530	-3.40%
Colorado Springs 11	Scott Elementary School	490	617	-20.58%
School District 27J	SD 27J Preschool at the Brighton LRC	97	80	21.25%
School District 27J	Second Creek Elementary School	869	750	15.87%
Jefferson County R-1	Secrest Elementary School	261	306	-14.71%
Douglas County Re 1	Sedalia Elementary School	205	254	-19.29%
Jefferson County R-1	Semper Elementary School	303	325	-6.77%
Dolores County RE No.2	Seventh Street Elementary School	115	110	4.55%
Windsor RE-4	Severance High School	808	360	124.44%
Windsor RE-4	Severance Middle School	761	640	18.91%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Shadow Ridge Middle School	768	866	-11.32%
Jefferson County R-1	Shaffer Elementary School	514	518	-0.77%
Westminster Public Schools	Shaw Heights Middle School	442	568	-22.18%
Greeley 6	Shawsheen Elementary School	362	418	-13.40%
Mesa County Valley 51	Shelledy Elementary School	382	422	-9.48%
Jefferson County R-1	Shelton Elementary School	405	476	-14.92%
Poudre R-1	Shepardson Elementary School	432	426	1.41%
Jefferson County R-1	Sheridan Green Elementary School	269	318	-15.41%
Sheridan 2	Sheridan High School	320	348	-8.05%
Fort Morgan Re-3	Sherman Early Childhood Center	439	475	-7.58%
Westminster Public Schools	Sherrelwood Elementary School	237	279	-15.05%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Side Creek Elementary School	488	496	-1.61%
Jefferson County R-1	Sierra Elementary School	445	476	-6.51%
Sierra Grande R-30	Sierra Grande K-12 School	259	269	-3.72%
Harrison 2	Sierra High School	945	848	11.44%
Douglas County Re 1	Sierra Middle School	761	875	-13.03%
Pueblo County 70	Sierra Vista Elementary School	459	520	-11.73%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Silver Creek Elementary	574	605	-5.12%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Silver Creek High School	1,274	1349	-5.56%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Silver Hills Middle School	1,021	1088	-6.16%
Summit RE-1	Silverthorne Elementary School	336	312	7.69%
Silverton 1	Silverton Elementary School	47	45	4.44%
Silverton 1	Silverton High School	24	19	26.32%
Silverton 1	Silverton Middle School	15	17	-11.76%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla Elementary School	142	168	-15.48%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla High School	97	90	7.78%
Big Sandy 100J	Simla Junior High School	86	77	11.69%
Elizabeth School District	Singing Hills Elementary School	374	360	3.89%
Elizabeth School District	Singing Hills Preschool	71	69	2.90%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Sixth Avenue Elementary School	581	447	29.98%
Denver County 1	Skinner Middle School	644	634	1.58%
Center 26 JT	Skoglund Middle School	141	142	-0.70%
Pueblo County 70	Sky View Middle School	584	663	-11.92%
Cherry Creek 5	Sky Vista Middle School	920	929	-0.97%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Skyline High School	1,487	1482	0.34%
Douglas County Re 1	Skyview Academy	1,257	1292	-2.71%
Windsor RE-4	Skyview Elementary School	602	455	32.31%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Skyview Elementary School	388	431	-9.98%
District 49	Skyview Middle School	1,005	1058	-5.01%
Cheyenne Mountain 12	Skyway Park Elementary School	284	312	-8.97%
Jefferson County R-1	Slater Elementary School	230	268	-14.18%
Denver County 1	Slavens K-8 School	732	748	-2.14%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Sleeping Giant School	362	-	-
Denver County 1	Smith Elementary School	412	435	-5.29%
Cherry Creek 5	Smoky Hill High School	2,133	2160	-1.25%
Summit RE-1	Snowy Peaks Junior/Senior High School	97	80	21.25%
Sheridan 2	SOAR Academy	90	94	-4.26%
Denver County 1	SOAR at Green Valley Ranch	467	437	6.86%
Harrison 2	Soaring Eagles Elementary School	538	559	-3.76%
Douglas County Re 1	Soaring Hawk Elementary School	467	577	-19.06%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Soaring Heights PK-8	1,198	1187	0.93%
Jefferson County R-1	Sobesky Academy	124	123	0.81%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Soda Creek Elementary School	407	526	-22.62%
Roaring Fork RE-1	Sopris Elementary School	345	397	-13.10%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco High School	102	104	-1.92%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco Middle School	72	70	2.86%
South Routt RE 3	Soroco Preschool at Yampa	36	33	9.09%
School District 27J	South Elementary School	387	445	-13.03%
Denver County 1	South High School	1,771	1636	8.25%
Pueblo City 60	South High School	947	943	0.42%
Jefferson County R-1	South Lakewood Elementary School	324	397	-18.39%
Pueblo County 70	South Mesa Elementary School	344	398	-13.57%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	South Middle School	357	760	-53.03%
Pueblo City 60	South Park Elementary School	336	358	-6.15%
Park County RE-2	South Park High School	124	126	-1.59%
Park County RE-2	South Park Middle School	99	120	-17.50%
Douglas County Re 1	South Ridge Elementary An IB World School	440	595	-26.05%
South Routt RE 3	South Routt Elementary School	129	118	9.32%
Weld County RE-1	South Valley Middle School	182	211	-13.74%
School District 27J	Southeast Elementary School	513	490	4.69%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Southern Hills Middle School	482	530	-9.06%
Denver County 1	Southmoor Elementary School	403	441	-8.62%
San Juan BOCES	Southwest Colorado eSchool	52	61	-14.75%
Montezuma-Cortez RE-1	Southwest Open Charter School	133	122	9.02%
Colorado Springs 11	Spark Online Academy	295	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Spark! Discovery Preschool	250	304	-17.76%
Springfield RE-4	Springfield Elementary School	155	173	-10.40%
Springfield RE-4	Springfield Junior/Senior High School	123	136	-9.56%
District 49	Springs Ranch Elementary School	600	579	3.63%
District 49	Springs Studio for Academic Excellence	424	402	5.47%
Widefield 3	Sproul Junior High School	552	627	-11.96%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain Community Montessori School	258	258	0.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain LaunchED Virtual Academy	585	-	-
St Vrain Valley RE1J	St. Vrain Virtual High School	61	128	-52.34%
Jefferson County R-1	Standley Lake High School	1,221	1318	-7.36%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stargate Charter School	1,494	1421	5.14%
Adams County 14	Stars Early Learning Center	84	90	-6.67%
Charter School Institute	Steamboat Montessori	160	161	-0.62%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Steamboat Springs High School	847	839	0.95%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Steamboat Springs Middle School	536	644	-16.77%
Denver County 1	Steck Elementary School	321	352	-8.81%
Denver County 1	Stedman Elementary School	426	337	26.41%
Denver County 1	Steele Elementary School	450	489	-7.98%
Colorado Springs 11	Steele Elementary School	245	282	-13.12%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stellar Elementary School	434	513	-15.40%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	STEM Lab	710	717	-0.98%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	STEM Launch	770	791	-2.65%
Douglas County Re 1	STEM School Highlands Ranch	1,670	1750	-4.57%
Denver County 1	Stephen Knight Center for Early Education	283	316	-10.44%
Valley RE-1	Sterling High School	448	464	-3.45%
Valley RE-1	Sterling Middle School	406	442	-8.14%
District 49	Stetson Elementary School	471	521	-9.60%
Jefferson County R-1	Stevens Elementary School	328	343	-4.37%
Jefferson County R-1	Stober Elementary School	239	250	-4.40%
Charter School Institute	Stone Creek School	314	321	-2.18%
Douglas County Re 1	Stone Mountain Elementary	571	672	-15.03%
Jefferson County R-1	Stony Creek Elementary School	372	404	-7.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Stott Elementary School	290	306	-5.23%
Strasburg 31J	Strasburg Elementary School	536	508	5.51%
Strasburg 31J	Strasburg High School	338	309	9.39%
Harrison 2	Stratmoor Hills Elementary School	213	188	13.30%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Elementary School	126	137	-8.03%
Colorado Springs 11	Stratton Elementary School	290	329	-11.85%
Harrison 2	Stratton Meadows Elementary School	355	356	-0.28%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Middle School	43	54	-20.37%
Stratton R-4	Stratton Senior High School	62	48	29.17%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Strawberry Park Elementary School	348	478	-27.20%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Federal	360	355	1.41%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Green Valley Ranch	367	359	2.23%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Kepner	209	249	-16.06%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Lake	208	284	-26.76%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Montbello	171	243	-29.63%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Rise	537	513	4.68%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Ruby Hill	439	484	-9.30%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Smart Academy	510	484	5.37%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Sunnyside	190	254	-25.20%
Denver County 1	STRIVE Prep - Westwood	311	333	-6.61%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Stukey Elementary School	351	392	-10.46%
Denver County 1	Summit Academy	208	222	-6.31%
Summit RE-1	Summit Cove Elementary School	240	250	-4.00%
Cherry Creek 5	Summit Elementary School	348	400	-13.00%
Woodland Park Re-2	Summit Elementary School	264	353	-25.21%
Summit RE-1	Summit High School	1,038	952	9.03%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Summit Middle Charter School	356	359	-0.84%
Summit RE-1	Summit Middle School	814	826	-1.45%
Jefferson County R-1	Summit Ridge Middle School	1,006	1019	-1.28%
Douglas County Re 1	Summit View Elementary School	450	523	-13.96%
Durango 9-R	Sunnyside Elementary School	119	154	-22.73%
Cherry Creek 5	Sunrise Elementary School	487	512	-4.88%
Widefield 3	Sunrise Elementary School	512	586	-12.63%
Moffat County RE: No 1	Sunset Elementary School	322	376	-14.36%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Sunset Middle School	395	453	-12.80%
Pueblo City 60	Sunset Park Elementary School	401	467	-14.13%
Westminster Public Schools	Sunset Ridge Elementary School	289	314	-7.96%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Superior Elementary School	453	435	4.14%
Pueblo County 70	Swallows Charter Academy	603	550	9.64%
Pueblo County 70	Swallows Charter Academy High School	152	149	2.01%
Denver County 1	Swansea Elementary School	416	467	-10.92%
Jefferson County R-1	Swanson Elementary School	227	259	-12.36%
Denver County 1	Swigert International School	571	587	-2.73%
Swink 33	Swink Elementary School	177	168	5.36%
Swink 33	Swink Junior-Senior High School	135	153	-11.76%
Widefield 3	Talbott STEAM Innovation School	353	421	-16.15%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Tarver Elementary School	497	475	4.63%
Poudre R-1	Tavelli Elementary School	572	608	-5.92%
Mesa County Valley 51	Taylor Elementary School	346	361	-4.16%
Colorado Springs 11	Taylor Elementary School	176	229	-23.14%
Academy 20	TCA College Pathways	520	522	-0.38%
Dolores RE-4A	Teddy Bear Preschool	65	58	12.07%
Denver County 1	Teller Elementary School	503	529	-4.91%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Elementary School	163	171	-4.68%
Telluride R-1	Telluride High School	321	270	18.89%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Intermediate School	239	276	-13.41%
Telluride R-1	Telluride Middle School	153	168	-8.93%
Westminster Public Schools	Tennyson Knolls Preparatory School	378	318	18.87%
Center 26 JT	The Academic Recovery Center of San Luis Valley	23	5	360.00%
Colorado Springs 11	The Bijou School	128	152	-15.79%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy Charter	2,144	2196	-2.37%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy High School	552	596	-7.38%
Academy 20	The Classical Academy Middle School	392	433	-9.47%
Pueblo County 70	The Connect Charter School	258	279	-7.53%
Cherry Creek 5	The Cottage at Holly Ridge	113	146	-22.60%
Academy 20	The Da Vinci Academy School	437	462	-5.41%
Buena Vista R-31	The Grove, BVSD's Early Learning Program	88	99	-11.11%
Cherry Creek 5	The Journey Preschool	114	65	75.38%
Durango 9-R	The Juniper School	143	138	3.62%
Charter School Institute	The Pinnacle Charter School	2,112	2018	4.66%
School District 27J	The STEAD School	156	-	-
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	The Studio School	273	277	-1.44%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (Elementary)	1,099	1011	8.70%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (High)	311	271	14.76%
Harrison 2	The Vanguard School (Middle)	232	230	0.87%
Denver County 1	Thomas Jefferson High School	1,374	1235	11.26%
Charter School Institute	Thomas MacLaren State Charter School	908	867	4.73%
Thompson R2-J	Thompson Integrated Early Childhood	68	563	-87.92%
Thompson R2-J	Thompson Valley High School	1,060	1089	-2.66%
Jefferson County R-1	Thomson Elementary School	194	272	-28.68%
Brush RE-2(J)	Thomson Primary School	382	386	-1.04%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton Elementary School	343	413	-16.95%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton High School	1,485	1608	-7.65%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thornton Middle School	795	994	-20.02%
Jefferson County R-1	Three Creeks K-8	964	912	5.70%
Mesa County Valley 51	Thunder Mountain Elementary School	447	516	-13.37%
Cherry Creek 5	Thunder Ridge Middle School	1,116	1254	-11.00%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Thunder Valley PK-8	825	851	-3.06%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Thunder Vista P-8	795	747	6.43%
Douglas County Re 1	Thunderridge High School	1,880	2042	-7.93%
East Otero R-1	Tiger Trades Academy	114	-	-
Douglas County Re 1	Timber Trail Elementary School	356	357	-0.28%
Cherry Creek 5	Timberline Elementary School	566	613	-7.67%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Timberline PK-8	831	898	-7.46%
Academy 20	Timberview Middle School	860	1062	-19.02%
Poudre R-1	Timnath Elementary School	417	456	-8.55%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Tollgate Elementary School of Expeditionary Learning	484	506	-4.35%
Mesa County Valley 51	Tope Elementary School	316	337	-6.23%
Windsor RE-4	Tozer Elementary School	512	558	-8.24%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Trail Ridge Middle School	549	680	-19.26%
Colorado Springs 11	Trailblazer Elementary School	249	312	-20.19%
Douglas County Re 1	Trailblazer Elementary School	310	413	-24.94%
Cherry Creek 5	Trails West Elementary School	446	460	-3.04%
Mapleton 1	Trailside Academy	514	478	7.53%
Poudre R-1	Traut Core Elementary School	490	510	-3.92%
Denver County 1	Traylor Academy	377	438	-13.93%
Denver County 1	Trevista at Horace Mann	386	379	1.85%
Trinidad 1	Trinidad High School	215	240	-10.42%
Trinidad 1	Trinidad Middle School	200	220	-9.09%
Thompson R2-J	Truscott Elementary School	224	231	-3.03%
Harrison 2	Turman Elementary School	196	254	-22.83%
School District 27J	Turnberry Elementary	732	711	2.95%
Thompson R2-J	Turner Middle School	476	466	2.15%
Colorado Springs 11	Twain Elementary School	360	406	-11.33%
Littleton 6	Twain Elementary School	226	287	-21.25%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Twin Peaks Charter Academy	830	729	13.85%
Charter School Institute	Two Rivers Community School	392	349	12.32%
Jefferson County R-1	Two Roads Charter School	605	635	-4.72%
Weld Re-8 Schools	Twombly Elementary School	436	417	4.56%
Greeley 6	Union Colony Elementary School	369	-	-
Greeley 6	Union Colony Preparatory School	362	864	-58.10%
Boulder Valley Re 2	University Hill Elementary School	431	464	-7.11%
Denver County 1	University Park Elementary School	388	436	-11.01%
Denver County 1	University Prep - Arapahoe St.	303	330	-8.18%
Denver County 1	University Prep - Steele St.	315	329	-4.26%
Greeley 6	University Schools	1,748	1774	-1.47%
Summit RE-1	Upper Blue Elementary School	224	262	-14.50%
Jefferson County R-1	Ute Meadows Elementary School	389	383	1.57%
Manitou Springs 14	Ute Pass Elementary School	177	159	11.32%
Eagle County RE 50	Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy (VSSA)	228	207	10.14%
Denver County 1	Valdez Elementary School	412	431	-4.41%
Weld County RE-1	Valley High School	568	547	3.84%
Denver County 1	Valverde Elementary School	274	272	0.74%
Jefferson County R-1	Van Arsdale Elementary School	414	451	-8.20%
Jefferson County R-1	Vanderhoof Elementary School	370	414	-10.63%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vanguard Classical School - East	773	702	10.11%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vanguard Classical School - West	341	422	-19.19%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Vantage Point	316	383	-17.49%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vassar Elementary School	457	520	-12.12%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vaughn Elementary School	345	360	-4.17%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vega Collegiate Academy	506	237	113.50%
Widefield 3	Venetucci Elementary School	287	351	-18.23%
Charter School Institute	Victory Preparatory Academy High State Charter School	112	123	-8.94%
Charter School Institute	Victory Preparatory Academy Middle State Charter School	176	204	-13.73%
School District 27J	Vikan Middle School	653	641	1.87%
Vilas RE-5	Vilas Elementary School	151	58	160.34%
Vilas RE-5	Vilas Undivided High School	71	45	57.78%
Pueblo County 70	Villa Bella Expeditionary School	300	192	56.25%
Littleton 6	Village at Highland	144	-	-
Littleton 6	Village at North	151	397	-61.96%
Cherry Creek 5	Village East Community Elementary School	689	774	-10.98%
Academy 20	Village High School	408	214	90.65%
Pueblo County 70	Vineland Elementary School	308	300	2.67%
Pueblo County 70	Vineland Middle School	332	359	-7.52%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Virginia Court Elementary School	381	423	-9.93%
Delta County 50(J)	Vision Charter Academy	398	476	-16.39%
Denver County 1	Vista Academy	211	297	-28.96%
Montrose County RE-1J	Vista Charter School	156	209	-25.36%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vista Peak 9-12 Preparatory	1,654	1407	17.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Vista Peak P-8 Exploratory	961	1225	-21.55%
District 49	Vista Ridge High School	1,644	1615	1.80%
Pueblo City 60	W H Heaton Middle School	755	773	-2.33%
Cherry Creek 5	Walnut Hills Community Elementary School	358	404	-11.39%
Walsh RE-1	Walsh Elementary School	104	109	-4.59%
Walsh RE-1	Walsh High School	57	45	26.67%
Thompson R2-J	Walt Clark Middle School	362	472	-23.31%
Garfield Re-2	Wamsley Elementary School	378	371	1.89%
Jefferson County R-1	Warder Elementary School	372	378	-1.59%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech Central	28	42	-33.33%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech North	9	5	80.00%
Jefferson County R-1	Warren Tech South	6	-	-
Canon City RE-1	Washington Elementary School	314	317	-0.95%
Lamar Re-2	Washington Elementary School	262	271	-3.32%
Rocky Ford R-2	Washington Primary School	152	190	-20.00%
Widefield 3	Watson Junior High School	539	560	-3.75%
Jefferson County R-1	Wayne Carle Middle School	528	584	-9.59%
Poudre R-1	Webber Middle School	739	806	-8.31%
Jefferson County R-1	Weber Elementary School	253	324	-21.91%
Widefield 3	Webster Elementary School	492	479	2.71%
Fountain 8	Weikel Elementary School	773	855	-9.59%
Mapleton 1	Welby Community School	323	387	-16.54%
Jefferson County R-1	Welchester Elementary School	262	323	-18.89%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Weld Central Middle School	533	543	-1.84%
Weld County School District RE-3J	Weld Central Senior High School	717	702	2.14%
Weldon Valley RE-20(J)	Weldon Valley Elementary School	138	133	3.76%
Weldon Valley RE-20(J)	Weldon Valley Jr/Sr High School	87	81	7.41%
Poudre R-1	Wellington Middle School	517	553	-6.51%
Fountain 8	Welte Education Center	115	84	36.90%
Poudre R-1	Werner Elementary School	393	484	-18.80%
Colorado Springs 11	West Elementary School	181	231	-21.65%
West Grand 1-JT	West Grand Elementary and Middle School	276	296	-6.76%
West Grand 1-JT	West Grand High School	117	138	-15.22%
Denver County 1	West High School	705	605	16.53%
Jefferson County R-1	West Jefferson Elementary School	261	275	-5.09%
Jefferson County R-1	West Jefferson Middle School	496	572	-13.29%
Mesa County Valley 51	West Middle School	341	379	-10.03%
Cherry Creek 5	West Middle School	1,077	1249	-13.77%
Colorado Springs 11	West Middle School	191	270	-29.26%
Denver County 1	West Middle School	314	642	-51.09%
Greeley 6	West Ridge Academy	424	434	-2.30%
School District 27J	West Ridge Elementary	783	747	4.82%
Jefferson County R-1	West Woods Elementary School	540	584	-7.53%
Denver County 1	Westerly Creek Elementary	715	721	-0.83%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westgate Community School	549	523	4.97%
Jefferson County R-1	Westgate Elementary School	365	465	-21.51%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westlake Middle School	967	1101	-12.17%
Westminster Public Schools	Westminster Academy for International Studies	304	299	1.67%
Westminster Public Schools	Westminster High School	2,082	2406	-13.47%
Jefferson County R-1	Westridge Elementary School	411	435	-5.52%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Westview Elementary School	427	444	-3.83%
St Vrain Valley RE1J	Westview Middle School	648	713	-9.12%
Jefferson County R-1	Wheat Ridge High School	1,084	1179	-8.06%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Wheeling Elementary School	453	497	-8.85%
Denver County 1	Whittier ECE-8 School	223	247	-9.72%
Boulder Valley Re 2	Whittier Elementary School	325	378	-14.02%
Widefield 3	Widefield District 3 Preschool	438	423	3.55%
Widefield 3	Widefield Elementary School of the Arts	351	423	-17.02%
Widefield 3	Widefield High School	1,160	1260	-7.94%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins Elementary School	481	419	14.80%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins High School	218	191	14.14%
Wiggins RE-50(J)	Wiggins Middle School	120	105	14.29%
Douglas County Re 1	Wildcat Mountain Elementary School	462	525	-12.00%
Littleton 6	Wilder Elementary School	631	686	-8.02%
Harrison 2	Wildflower Elementary School	411	458	-10.26%
Wiley RE-13 Jt	Wiley Elementary School	150	131	14.50%
Wiley RE-13 Jt	Wiley Junior-Senior High School	112	107	4.67%
Denver County 1	William (Bill) Roberts ECE-8 School	850	932	-8.80%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	William Smith High School	375	372	0.81%
Cherry Creek 5	Willow Creek Elementary School	509	556	-8.45%
Denver County 1	Willow Elementary School	614	628	-2.23%
Jefferson County R-1	Wilmore Davis Elementary School	243	259	-6.18%
Jefferson County R-1	Wilmot Elementary School	289	352	-17.90%
Colorado Springs 11	Wilson Elementary School	346	385	-10.13%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Early College High School	359	302	18.87%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Elementary School	778	685	13.58%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Charter Academy Middle School	365	351	3.99%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor High School	1,172	1377	-14.89%
Windsor RE-4	Windsor Middle School	812	733	10.78%
Mesa County Valley 51	Wingate Elementary School	405	452	-10.40%
Greeley 6	Winograd K-8 Elementary School	612	670	-8.66%
Thompson R2-J	Winona Elementary School	262	327	-19.88%
Jefferson County R-1	Witt Elementary School	257	297	-13.47%
Englewood 1	Wm E Bishop Elementary School	203	205	-0.98%
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Woodglen Elementary School	424	482	-12.03%
Woodland Park Re-2	Woodland Park High School	601	699	-14.02%
Woodland Park Re-2	Woodland Park Middle School	406	529	-23.25%
Woodlin R-104	Woodlin Elementary School	30	44	-31.82%
Woodlin R-104	Woodlin Undivided High School	42	41	2.44%
District 49	Woodmen Hills Elementary School	611	615	-0.65%
Academy 20	Woodmen-Roberts Elementary School	432	479	-9.81%
Jefferson County R-1	Woodrow Wilson Charter Academy	771	931	-17.19%
Eagle County RE 50	World Academy	56	32	75.00%
Douglas County Re 1	World Compass Academy	679	619	9.69%
Wray RD-2	Wray Elementary School	425	335	26.87%
Wray RD-2	Wray Junior Senior High School	324	199	62.81%
Denver County 1	Wyatt Academy	179	178	0.56%
Adams-Arapahoe 28J	Yale Elementary School	482	469	2.77%
Steamboat Springs RE-2	Yampa Valley High School	26	27	-3.70%
Colorado River BOCES	Yampah Mountain School	169	168	0.60%
Mapleton 1	York International	851	793	7.31%
Yuma 1	Yuma High School	252	251	0.40%
Yuma 1	Yuma Middle School	256	268	-4.48%
Poudre R-1	Zach Elementary School	493	562	-12.28%

Colorado’s pre-K to 12th grade enrollment

Cam Rodriguez

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer contributed to this report.

What’s going on with remote learning in NYC? (Hint: It’s confusing.)

2022-01-18T21:36:01+00:00

New York City families and educators may be feeling confused by mixed messages over whether the nation’s largest school system is poised to offer a remote option.

Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday tamped down any expectations for a robust remote learning option for students. His comments came days after schools Chancellor David Banks told parent leaders that the city was in talks for just such a shift, and after the city quietly changed its attendance policy to give more students access to virtual schoolwork.

The discussion about a remote option comes after COVID cases across New York City spiked to record highs due to the omicron variant. Since the winter break, attendance hasn’t cracked 80%, compared to around 90% typically. That means about a quarter-million students haven’t been in schools on any given day — almost the size of the entire Broward County, Fla. school district, the nation’s sixth-largest.

Here’s where things stand when it comes to a remote learning option for New York City students.

Is there a remote learning option for NYC students?

There currently is no remote learning option for New York City students — but city officials and unions have been in talks over the possibility of one.

“If I could figure out a way to do a remote option starting tomorrow I would,” Banks told parent leaders last week.

The new chancellor has been consistent in supporting a remote learning option, telling Chalkbeat before officially taking the helm of city schools that it’s “critically important” to acknowledge “that some parents are still fearful, legitimately, about the pandemic.”

While leaving the door open to the possibility, the chancellor and the mayor have both stressed that their main goal is to have students inside school buildings.

“We consistently have stated that the safest place for a child is in school,” Adams said Tuesday.

What might a remote option look like?

Any remote option offered to New York City families will likely be limited given city officials’ preference for in-person school, the massive disruptions a robust remote option might cause schools and families, potential challenges from unions, and the preference of many parents to keep their children in classrooms.

Among the big, unanswered questions: Who would be eligible for remote instruction?

The president of the teachers union, Michael Mulgrew, said last week that any shift to virtual learning should be limited. On Tuesday, the mayor suggested it would only be for students who are sick, saying that remote learning “is not for the general population, and we want to be clear on that.”

“Our exploration of anything remote is to target the children who are infected, and we want to isolate them,” Adams said. “Those are our target groups. It is not just to send a signal out if you don’t want to come to school, don’t come to school. No, our schools are open.”

What role might unions play?

Unions will likely play a central role in what, if anything, is rolled out.

To help solve the enormous staffing and logistical issues created by remote instruction, the chancellor had hinted that the city was pushing for teachers to livestream lessons. But the teachers union has been adamantly opposed to live streaming, and the city’s current agreement with the United Federation of Teachers prohibits any requirement to do so.

The Council for School Supervisors and Administrators, which represents principals, sent members an update last week that said leaders were “very surprised” to hear the chancellor’s support for a remote learning option.

The note to members laid out some of the union’s positions on remote learning, including that students who switch to remote learning should be locked in for the remainder of the school year, that principals be given autonomy and time to make adjustments, and that teachers be required to continue to work inside school buildings.

“We’ve already communicated to the chancellor how disrespected and frustrated school leaders felt when learning about the prior administration’s plans for schools in the press,” the union’s message said. “We anticipate that he and his team will acknowledge and solve for the complex challenges that come along with this sudden and unexpected reversal midway through a school year.”

In the meantime, will students who stay home have access to remote work?

Since the beginning of the school year, teachers have been required to set up virtual classrooms to provide remote work, but some schools only allowed students to access that work if they had a positive COVID test or were quarantining because of positive cases. Students who stayed home because they weren’t feeling well because of some other illness, or for any other reason, could be left without any instruction.

Last week, the education department sent new guidance to principals that clarified that teachers can provide work to students, regardless of why they’re staying home, as long as the teacher and their supervisor agrees. Additionally, students can be marked as present while attending class remotely, even if they didn’t test positive themselves — a move that might help the city’s dismal attendance rates.

Educators and some parents had pushed for the changes, saying they had set up remote classrooms anyways and that it didn’t make sense to leave so many students without access to schoolwork.

“When kids are absent for whatever reason, we need a way to keep them connected and keep them engaged,” said Michael Perlberg, a middle school principal in Brooklyn.

The policy shift gives schools a stopgap measure while cases remain high, but it falls short of the kind of remote instruction made available earlier in the pandemic. Plus, it will only be available on a school-by-school basis — when teachers and principals agree to it — which could mean that many students remain disconnected from school.

Such concerns prompted some from one local district to call for more uniform guidance. Parent leaders and school principals in Brooklyn’s District 13, spanning Brooklyn Heights, Fort Greene and Prospect Heights, drafted a petition calling on the city to guarantee access to virtual learning for students who are at home sick, whether they tested positive for COVID or not.

“It’s an equity issue because right now some schools can do it and some schools can’t,” said Cynthia McKnight, the president of the district’s Community Education Council, a parent-lead volunteer body. “There’s nothing centralized to offer these families remote learning.”

In dramatic turnaround, most Philadelphia schools will be in-person this week

2022-01-14T23:40:38+00:00

After shifting nearly half of its schools to remote learning last week, the Philadelphia school district announced Monday that 15 schools will be virtual this week.

The district Friday said eight schools would shift to remote learning and Monday added seven to the list due to staffing challenges caused by the omicron variant. The 15 schools will be virtual the rest of the week. All schools were closed Jan. 17 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Since returning from winter break, the district has struggled to keep its schools open for in-person learning amid a dramatic surge in COVID cases. Many teachers and other staff members were either sick or in quarantine.

Monica Lewis, a district spokesperson, said Friday that most schools are expected to be open this week because staff members are returning.

“There’s a shift in number because there aren’t any staff infections in the schools. It may have been that people who were infected are no longer infected,” Lewis said.

The district’s list includes Northeast High School EOP and Northeast High School, which are shifting to virtual through Jan. 22 as recommended by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

The other schools are: Allen M. Stearne School, Delaplaine McDaniel School, Gateway To College, Joseph Pennell School, Ombudsman Northwest Accelerated, Roosevelt Elementary School, Hancock Demonstration School, James G. Blaine School, Louis H. Farrell Elementary School, Roberto Clemente Middle School, Samuel Pennypacker Elementary School, Thomas Edison High School and Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School.

The district closed the schools due to staffing shortages, but the PDPH closed Northeast, which has 3,000 students, because it reached a threshold of 10% positive COVID test results.

Superintendent William Hite said Friday that he was “hopeful that Philadelphia will be approaching the end of the omicron surge soon, and we can return to a consistent in-person learning experience for all of our young people.”

Hite asked families to continue to be flexible and prepare for the “possibility of virtual learning at any time.”

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has been advocating for schools to go remote until the district ramps up its safety plan in consultation with union leaders. The PFT wants the district to provide more PPE, including N95 and KN95 masks, expand testing and vaccination programs, and have a school nurse in every building every day.

The union issued no statement after the district’s announcement, but spokesperson Hillary Linardopoulos said via text message: “Our advocacy for an adequate and jointly developed safety plan continues.”

District officials have been steadfast in their commitment to keep as many schools open for in-person learning as possible, despite the challenges posed by the increase in cases caused by the more contagious omicron variant.

But many teachers have said the sudden switches from in-person to remote learning make it difficult to plan lessons and teach. Many students also have been absent, because they were sick with COVID, in quarantine, or fear coming to school in person.

Robin Cooper, president of CASA, the Philly principals’ union she said was skeptical about the rapid reduction in schools offering virtual learning.

“We want in-person learning, but we want it done safely. If there’s been conversation around the staffing and not conversation around the deep cleaning of buildings, we still have an issue.”

In the last two weeks 28.8% of COVID tests in the city have been positive. The city has averaged 3,301 new cases per day during that time period, according to data released Friday by the health department.

Health officials, however, have said that it is important to keep schools open because students are best served by in-person learning. Health Secretary Dr. Cheryl Bettigole also has said that in-school transmission has been low.

Vaccination rates have improved for children ages 5 to 11, with 30% getting at least one dose. That’s up from November, when the number was about 9%. Among eligible Philadelphians ages 12 and older, 72.5% are fully vaccinated, and 92.3% have received at least one dose.

The district advised Friday that “grab-and-go” meal boxes will be available for pick up between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. for any district student who is temporarily learning virtually or quarantining at home. There were no meal sites Monday due to the holiday.

The district is requiring staff at the 15 schools to report to work in person unless they are self-isolating or quarantining due to COVID or exposure or have an approved leave. This excludes Northeast High and EOP, which are all virtual for students and staff.

Dale Mezzacappa contributed reporting

NYC might create a remote option this school year, Chancellor David Banks tells parents

2022-01-13T17:56:45+00:00

New York City is in talks to create a remote option this school year and is working to iron out the specifics with the city’s teachers union, schools Chancellor David Banks said on Thursday.

“My goal is to create an option that will take us at the very least to the end of the school year,” Banks said at a virtual meeting of the Chancellor’s Parent Advisory Council, which is made up of parent leaders citywide. “If I could figure out a way to do a remote option starting tomorrow I would … It’s not quite as simple as that because you have to negotiate this stuff with the unions.”

He added: “I do think we can come up with something because there’s enough political pressure that has been put on.”

The city’s teachers union indicated Thursday morning that they are open to a remote option, but did not say what specific models they might support.

“We’ve called for a remote learning program since September, and we believe we need to do this,” Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, said on Fox 5. “On the remote option, we don’t want to go back to 65% of the children staying home. So, for parents, I’m going to ask again: Please, if we have this option, use it judiciously.”

Banks has hinted since he took office that he is open to remote learning, even as he and Adams have emphasized the importance of in-person learning and have resisted calls to shut down school buildings in the face of a massive surge of coronavirus infections. More students and staff have reported positive coronavirus infections since the winter recess than the entire rest of the school year combined.

But despite the administration’s insistence on keeping schools open and requiring in-person attendance, absenteeism has skyrocketed in recent weeks as thousands of students have tested positive for the virus and many families are keeping their children home to avoid exposure.

Since the winter recess, daily attendance has not exceeded 76%, meaning roughly a quarter-million students are not receiving instruction on any given day, almost the population of the Broward County school district, the nation’s sixth largest system. (Attendance typically tops 90%.) And in-person learning is also being disrupted as staff members are infected and must stay home, with schools shuttling students to auditoriums in some cases or scrambling to find substitutes.

Still, Banks’ remarks are in tension with what Adams told lawmakers this week: The city would not be able to launch a remote option for at least six months.

Adams told reporters on Thursday that he is willing to consider a remote option and negotiate with the United Federation of Teachers, but did not offer any specifics about what that might look like.

“I’m willing to sit down and entertain, with the UFT, if there is a way to do a temporary remote option,” he said. “We do have to be honest, that there’s a substantial number of children, for whatever reason, parents are not bringing them to school. I have to make sure children are educated.”

Still, Adams said the fallout of remote learning is “unbelievable” and reiterated the importance of keeping students in school buildings, which he said are safe.

Creating a remote option for parents, rather than universal remote instruction, would represent a massive logistical undertaking. Hybrid learning, in which educators are responsible for students in person and when they’re learning remotely, created a significant staffing crunch last year. And a move back to a hybrid model would immediately raise questions about whether it’s possible to execute without shortchanging instruction for students who show up to buildings.

Banks hinted that one way to resolve that dilemma would be for teachers to livestream their classrooms, a model that educators have said is challenging to pull off — challenges that Banks acknowledged. The city’s current agreement with the teachers union prohibits schools from requiring teachers to livestream their classrooms. Banks said officials are meeting with the teachers union this afternoon.

“That’s my first goal was to say, ‘Can we turn that agreement around and just do a livestream and let kids just participate in the class?’” he said.

Banks also encouraged parents to talk with their school’s union chapter leaders to press for a remote option.

“Our parents are demanding a remote option,” Banks said. “Can we get a deal done with the UFT? That’s where it’s coming to.”

In a statement, Mulgrew indicated the union was not an impediment to creating a remote option. But a spokesperson did not say whether the union would support a model that involved teachers livestreaming their classrooms nor did she provide other details about how the union wants to structure virtual instruction.

“Clearly the chancellor has been misinformed about the UFT’s position,” Mulgrew said in a statement. “We have long called for an instructionally sound remote option and have been speaking directly to the mayor about creating one, a program that will work for students.”

Christina Veiga contributed to this story.

Detroit school district extends remote learning to late January

2022-01-12T23:50:50+00:00

Update: The Detroit school district on Wednesday evening formally announced an extension of the online learning period to Jan. 24 (or Jan. 31 at the latest) via social media and on the district’s website.

Detroit district students and educators likely won’t return to in-person learning until the end of January, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a school board meeting Tuesday.

The update reflects the district’s temporary shift to online learning in light of a surge in COVID cases fueled by the omicron variant in Detroit and across the state. The number of cases continues to grow.

The district is tentatively targeting a return to classrooms by Jan. 24, or Jan. 31, depending on whether the city returns to a 10-20% infection rate, Vitti said. The city’s COVID positivity rate was at 37.6% on Jan. 6.

“Our hope is that in the next couple of days and weeks, it continues to go to a point that is more manageable for us to reopen schools,” Vitti said during Tuesday’s school board meeting.

The return to in-person learning will require mandatory employee COVID testing. In addition, student consent forms for weekly saliva testing are due by Jan. 31. If families do not complete permission forms before or on that date, their students will be transferred to the district’s virtual school.

The testing consent rate districtwide is 74%. The district will give families a grace period of one to two weeks following the Jan. 31 deadline to complete the consent form before students are officially moved to virtual school, Vitti added.

Students who can provide medical or religious reasons can be exempt from weekly testing.

Detroit district continues to see low attendance rates

Student attendance for the recent online learning days has fallen below the 75% attendance rate Michigan requires. Over the past three days, Vitti reported, the district saw 58%, 62%, and 70% student attendance rate for online learning. If districts fall below 75%, they can lose a portion of their state aid.

If this pattern continues, Vitti added, any future snow days or emergency closures will become online-learning days.

“The state grants us six days, we have already used up those days,” Vitti said. “This is not something I necessarily want to do, it’s something we have to do.”

Individual schools that have more than six days off, the superintendent added, may be subject to extended school hours.

“We can’t stay in this online space for any longer,” Vitti said.

A recent analysis of statewide student testing data from Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaboration revealed that Michigan students who learned remotely for the majority of last school year learned less than those who learned in person.

The school district is also preparing to update its quarantine and contact tracing requirements to reflect new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Monday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced that it changed its isolation guidelines in K-12 schools to line up with the CDC.

Subject to new guidance, the district’s quarantining period will be reduced for asymptomatic students and employees to five days, Vitti said. Currently, the district’s policy requires unvaccinated students to isolate for 7-10 days.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to make it clear that mandatory student testing doesn’t begin until Jan. 31 at the earliest, though the district plans a grace period of one to two weeks to allow parents to turn in consent forms.

Tennessee bill would extend school vouchers to parents upset over mask mandates, virtual learning

2022-01-19T15:49:39+00:00

Tennessee parents upset about local public school policies requiring masks or virtual learning could get state funding to send their child to a private school under a voucher proposal filed this week by two Republican lawmakers.

Rep. Michael Curcio and Sen. Mike Bell want to expand a voucher program approved by the legislature in 2019 but halted in 2020 by a Tennessee judge for applying only to students in Memphis and Nashville. The case is under appeal, with arguments scheduled before the Tennessee Supreme Court in February.

The bill would expand the law to make vouchers available to students in any Tennessee district that mandates masks or does not offer at least 180 days of in-person learning due to the coronavirus pandemic for the three upcoming school years beginning on Sept. 1, 2022.

However, it does not afford the same opportunity for students whose parents are upset about the absence of a mask mandate, or would like their student to switch to virtual learning when COVID cases surge.

The bill is an effort to promote parent choice while disincentivizing districts from adopting COVID mitigation strategies opposed by Gov. Bill Lee and other GOP leaders in Tennessee.

Last summer after seeing a dramatic drop in state test scores blamed partly on virtual learning, House Speaker Cameron Sexton threatened voucher legislation for districts whose leaders require masks or shutter their buildings. Sexton, who voted against the voucher law in 2019 before becoming speaker, declined to comment Tuesday about Curcio’s bill.

“Speaker Sexton has not seen the bill language as of yet,” said spokesman Doug Kufner.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Curcio said his proposal aims to give parents choices for their child’s education — not to punish school systems — through the voucher program known as education savings accounts.

“I firmly believe in local control and local school boards setting policy for their districts,” said Curcio, of Dickson. “At the same time, if a parent questions whether those decisions are right for their child, they should be able to take advantage of an education savings account.”

The 2019 law provided voucher eligibility to students in districts that have a high concentration of low-performing “priority schools,” or have schools in the state’s school turnaround district program known as the Achievement School District. That criteria applied to Memphis and Nashville, where leaders didn’t want the program.

Curcio’s bill would add a pandemic provision to also extend eligibility statewide for any district that meets those criteria.

Curcio believes statewide application would address a constitutional provision that suggests the legislature doesn’t have authority to create a major education program that applies to only two districts without local approval.

But Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro said he would expect another legal challenge if the new bill passes and becomes law.

“What this really shows is that the legislature is using vouchers to punish school districts that get on the wrong side of Republican leaders,” said Yarbro, a lawyer from Nashville.

“First, they singled out Memphis and Nashville; now they’re singling out districts on the wrong side of last year’s culture wars. I don’t think we should pass any education policy that seeks to punish a district. And given that the voucher program has been halted by our courts as unconstitutional, it doesn’t make any sense to talk about expanding it,” Yarbro said.

Curcio disagrees. He said many parents believe their family is being held hostage by local school policies with which they disagree.

“If your kid’s been stuck at home while you’re trying to earn a living and provide for your family, you can say ‘enough is enough,’” he said. “School choice is a benefit, and I don’t think wealthy parents are the only ones who should be able to remove their child from a public school and send them to a private school if they think that’s what’s best.”

You can read a summary of the bill here.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with details about current and proposed eligibility.

‘It’s made planning nearly impossible’: Philly teachers scramble in district’s partial return

2022-01-11T01:34:10+00:00

Last week, when the Philadelphia school district abruptly shifted a third of its schools to remote learning, Charlie McGeehan, a social studies teacher, found out at 7:30 p.m. Monday that his school, Academy at Palumbo, was among them. His classes, suddenly virtual, started at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

After work Friday, he learned his school would be open for in-person instruction this week.

“It’s made planning nearly impossible,” he said. “Not knowing whether we’ll be virtual or in person, not knowing how many kids I’ll see.”

District officials want to keep as many schools open for in-person learning as possible, despite a COVID surge that has made it difficult to staff schools because teachers and other employees have gotten sick or had to quarantine. This week, nearly half of the district’s 216 schools are operating remotely until Friday – with 36 schools announced over the weekend, three added Monday afternoon and four added Monday night – and many teachers have said the last-minute decision-making has made it difficult to plan their lessons and teach.

After parents and teachers criticized the rollout last week as chaotic, district officials set consistent times to announce which schools would shift to virtual instruction; those are now at 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. daily.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has called for the entire district to stay virtual until the end of this week, to give more time for the omicron surge to slow. But the district is adamant about keeping as many schools open in person as possible, saying that is better for students.

The city has seen, on average, 2,978 positive cases per day in the last two weeks, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health on Monday. During that time, 31.5% of COVID tests in Philadelphia have come back positive.

But Philadelphia Health Secretary Dr. Cheryl Bettigole has said the city’s school children are best served by in-person learning, and in-school spread has been low. “When we do see cases in schools, the majority of those cases are not coming from in-school transmission,” she said.

Still, with spiking COVID case numbers, many students have been absent, making teaching and learning a challenge.

Ethan Tannen, a math teacher at Julia R. Masterman High School, which has been in person, said some students have not returned to class since the winter break.

“I think that there’s just some general apprehension amongst the students and some of the families, regarding the transmission numbers and the positive test numbers and the fact that we’re in a school with 33 kids in a lot of classes and it can be hard to be really socially distanced.”

Tannen said he tries to limit the types of activities where students at the special admissions school are mixing and mingling, “which can sometimes be the most engaging time in the classroom.” He noted students “have been quite good about masking.”

At Academy at Palumbo, McGeehan said it would have been easier to plan instruction if the district had announced two weeks of virtual learning after the winter break. His approach varies based on whether his students are in person or remote, he said.

“When we’re online, I try to assign things that are a lot more asynchronous and a lot less discussion-based. In person, we read and watch and discuss things together,” he said.

It takes time, he said, to switch plans for the next day.

Some of his students, who have been isolated because of COVID, were able to attend virtually last week, and most did, he said. This week, with in-person instruction, “they obviously can’t be here.”

Conversely, many of the teachers who were out for COVID-related reasons could teach last week, but can’t this week in person.

Spruance Elementary School in the Northeast, which has 1,200 students, has been virtual since Jan. 4. Gemeyel Keyes, a paraprofessional who assists in a special education classroom, said that very few of the 12 students assigned to the kindergarten-to-second-grade classroom are logging in. He also criticized the district’s last-minute, school-by-school decision making as leading to disruption and confusion.

“This past week was so chaotic, parents are not prepared to go virtual,” Keyes said.

Last week, one child logged in between Jan. 4 and Jan. 6. On Jan. 7, there were three. Two students logged in Monday, he said.

Some families “don’t know how to access the program or navigate the [virtual] classroom,” Keyes said. “Honestly, we’re delivering instruction in the best way we can. We’re doing things on the fly.”

Kate Sannicks-Lerner, a kindergarten teacher and union representative at Julio DeBurgos Elementary, which has been remote since last week, said 19 staff members called out Monday.

Sarahn Santana, who teaches African American history and English at Parkway Northwest High School, has been in person since Jan. 4, when the school resumed after winter break. She estimates that probably two-thirds of the students are attending.

Unlike last year, the district hasn’t asked teachers to teach students in person and online simultaneously – but some are doing it anyway. In one class, Santana said she had 10 students in person on Monday and five online.

“We care about our students, we don’t want them to fall behind,” especially since it is close to the end of the marking period, she said, adding “I’m trying my best to make it work.”

Sonny Bavaro teaches English to 12th graders at the Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, which has stayed in person so far. On Monday the attendance rate was 63%, he said. Normally, he said, it never drops below 95%.

While some students have COVID or are quarantining, others are staying home out of fear they will contract the virus and infect vulnerable family members, Bavaro said.

His biggest concern about learning “is equity,” he said. “I can teach the kids who are in front of me and provide materials for kids who are out,” but the students at home are at a disadvantage.

To try to compensate, Bavaro has been meeting with some kids via Zoom during lunch or after school in an effort “to get them connected with what we’re doing,” he said.

Plus, as an arts school, instruction is usually project-based, and that is harder to do with a shifting cast of students, and in this atmosphere of uncertainty. “We could shut down tomorrow,” he said.

The district follows the guidance of the health department and the Policy Lab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which say that students not having the consistency of in-person school is a bigger public health issue than omicron. The variant has been shown to be mild, especially in children, health officials said.

Several teachers interviewed by Chalkbeat also said they are concerned by the low rate of vaccination among their students. Most young people between the ages of 5 and 18 in Philadelphia are not vaccinated. About a quarter of those ages 5 to 11, and half of those 12 to 17 have gotten at least one shot, as of last week, according to the health department.

The district has mandated that staff be vaccinated, unless they are granted a valid religious or medical exemption, and the PFT estimates that 85% are vaccinated.

But there is no mandate for students – although vaccinated students who are a close contact of someone who tests positive don’t have to be quarantined for ten days, while unvaccinated students do.

Keyes, Santana and Bavaro all said that there is vaccine hesitancy among the students they teach and their families – but many also are afraid of the virus and aren’t sending their children to school.

“Our attendance is low, but we do have students continue to log in virtually,” said Santana. “So this just shows that many of our students and parents don’t feel safe.”

Collierville High School moves to remote learning due to COVID

2022-01-11T00:07:39+00:00

Collierville High School students will learn remotely for the rest of the week as COVID cases swell in the region, increasing student and staff absences.

Collierville Schools officials announced the move in a statement on Monday afternoon, saying the district had been granted a waiver from state Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, allowing the district to go virtual.

The shift comes just over a week after the Collierville school board opted not to require students to wear masks inside school buildings when they returned from winter break, as the omicron variant fueled the most recent COVID surge. At that time, Collierville schools Superintendent Gary Lilly said his greatest fear was that the district wouldn’t have enough people to staff schools, the Commercial Appeal reported.

This week, Lilly’s fears came to fruition. As of Monday, 14% of students and teachers and 29% of school support staff were currently infected with COVID or had potentially been exposed to the virus, the district said.

Despite administrators’ efforts to send staff from the district offices, as well as the curriculum, human resources, and student services departments to Collierville High School, the district was still unable to cover all classes, Lilly said in his waiver request sent to Schwinn around 11 a.m. Monday.

Schwinn granted the waiver just before 3 p.m.

As of Friday, the last time the district updated its COVID dashboard, officials reported 35 COVID cases among staff members and 125 among students. Of those cases, 46 were among Collierville High School students and seven were among staff.

Across Shelby County, the health department reported 2,327 new cases on Monday, including 562 among children under the age of 18. In total, there are over 30,000 active COVID cases in the county, with 6,000 among children.

Collierville High School will operate online only through Friday. Extracurriculars and sports also will be canceled. Classes will proceed as normal at the district’s other schools.

These are the big Michigan education issues we’re watching in 2022

2022-01-10T23:08:12+00:00

With COVID surging and a growing number of schools shifting to virtual learning, the first seven days of 2022 have provided an unsettling preview of what’s to come in education this year, when the continued struggle to recover from the pandemic will dominate.

COVID, and its effects on schools, is by far the top education issue of 2022. It permeates every aspect of how students learn, teachers teach, and schools operate.

So far this year, more than a dozen Michigan school districts have temporarily shifted to online learning as the more contagious omicron variant has fueled big increases in positive cases. While most districts returned to in-person learning as scheduled after the break, there is growing uncertainty about whether they’ll be forced online in the near future. And, the surge is refueling debates about policies making the wearing of masks optional or required in school buildings.

Chalkbeat talked to Michigan education policy experts, educators, and researchers to help identify the top education issues of 2022. Here are topics we’ll be closely following.

Anything missing? Tell us at detroit.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Can students rebound?

As we head into the second half of the school year, the biggest question is: Will the current surge slow or stall efforts to help students recover from the previous school year, when some students spent much of the time learning online, and many others bounced between virtual and in-person learning?

Michigan reduces school quarantine and isolation guidelines

Michigan school employees and students who test positive or are exposed to a positive person will only have to isolate or quarantine for five days under most circumstances.

That’s according to new recommendations from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which aligns with new federal guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week.

Here’s an overview of the new state recommendations officials are urging schools to adopt:

Students and employees who test positive and/or display COVID symptoms must isolate for five days, regardless of their vaccination status. If symptoms improve or disappear, they can return to school as long as they wear a well-fitted mask. Those unwilling or unable to wear a mask must stay home for days 6-10.
Anyone who is in close contact with someone who tests positive won’t need to quarantine if they had COVID in the previous 90 days, or if they are up to date on all recommended COVID vaccinations. They must wear a mask in school for 10 days.
Anyone who is a close contact of someone who tests positive, but isn’t fully vaccinated and hasn’t had COVID in the last 90 days must quarantine for five days or “test to stay” to return to school. Test to stay means they must be tested every other day for six days following the exposure.Those who opt to quarantine can return to school after five days and must wear a mask for days 6-10. They must quarantine for the entire 10 days if they are unwilling or unable to wear a mask.

Pandemic learning has been particularly difficult for some groups of students, including those with disabilities who didn’t receive all the services they require to learn, and students from low-income homes, who were more likely to learn online. Research has found students who learned online, including those from low-income homes, didn’t learn as much as those who were in person.

A key test will be whether educators are able to help students get back on track who fell behind.

“The stakes are high,” and include “the future of each and every student’s job opportunities and life outcomes, as well as states’ economic futures and talent workforce,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, an education research and advocacy organization based in Royal Oak.

Just as much is at stake in addressing the mental health and social challenges students have experienced while living through the pandemic. Students have spent so much time separated from their friends, experienced loss, and most recently, dealt with the threat of school violence that emerged after the deadly shooting at Oxford High School in November.

“If we don’t help kids to recover socially and emotionally in our schools, they’re not going to get those services elsewhere, at least not equitably,” said Katharine Strunk, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University. “Families who can afford help will get it, but those who can’t, won’t, and that will exacerbate inequities.”

It’s a “huge, defining moment,” said Strunk, because “if we don’t help kids to feel safe again, we could really be seeing long-term problems, not just for these kids, but for society.”

Will COVID relief money help?

Another big test of the year will be whether district leaders are able to use $6.1 billion in federal COVID relief money to help students catch up academically, address the mental health challenges, and confront a number of issues related to students and staff.

Many are using the money to hire teachers and pay them more in order to retain them. Others are investing in heating, air-conditioning, and ventilation systems. A lot are expanding summer school and after-school programs and investing in tutoring, technology, and counselors to help students with the pandemic’s social and emotional effects.

Reporters from Chalkbeat and the Detroit Free Press have teamed up to track how Michigan school districts are spending the money. In December, we reported that many districts haven’t clearly and publicly articulated their plans. That is concerning to education experts who say transparency, accountability, and community engagement are paramount.

“It was a mistake for the [U.S.] Department of Education not to build in a way to simplify the tracking of the monies being spent and make it available so the public can understand,” Strunk said. “The department had the opportunity to do it, and they didn’t.”

Although that spending is largely controlled by school districts, the governor has some role in steering it, and people will be watching, said Sarah Reckhow, a Michigan State University assistant professor of political science who specializes in education politics.

“(Gov. Gretchen) Whitmer can be proactive in her bully-pulpit role in pointing out examples of districts that spend recovery dollars wisely,” Reckhow said. “She can get guidance out to school districts to encourage them” to spend it on her priorities.

Equitable school funding

How well schools spend federal money, and how transparent they are, could impact perennial efforts to address Michigan’s school funding system. Several high-profile reports in recent years have concluded that the way the state funds schools isn’t adequate, and creates inequities between wealthy and poor districts. Whitmer has pushed for a more weighted funding system that would give additional state funds to the most vulnerable students. But a full-scale reform hasn’t happened. Could this be the year?

Arellano said that before the pandemic, national research showed Michigan ranked as one of the worst states in the country for gaps in funding equity.

“Fair funding is one of the most important enabling conditions for districts to create high-caliber, rigorous pathways of opportunity to learn at high levels,” she said. “As a state, we have failed tragically at creating these conditions for all children.”

Staffing woes continue to be a factor

Schools across Michigan have been strained by labor shortages - from teachers to support staff. Substitute teacher shortages, a problem before the pandemic, worsened so much this school year that lawmakers enacted new rules that make it easier for support staff such as bus drivers and school secretaries to cover classes. Meanwhile, school nutrition officials report shortages are making it tough to ensure students have access to quality meals on a regular basis.

The current COVID surge will only worsen the problems, because staff who are exposed to the virus or who contract it must be out of school buildings for at least five days or more.

The overall shortages are “going to plague us for at least four to five years and perhaps longer if the teacher incentives being proposed by a number of groups are not moved forward,” said Wendy Zdeb, executive director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals.

“With wages rising in many other industries, along with better benefits and flexible working conditions, schools just can’t compete for workers,” Zdeb said. “This is going to cause serious staffing issues and it will require schools to function differently in the future.”

Education in the governor’s race

It’s unclear how big an issue education will be in the Michigan governor’s race. It wasn’t expected to factor heavily in the Virginia governor’s race last year but it ended up being key to Republican Glenn Youngkin’s win after a long campaign centered on energy, economy, and public safety. In the end, Youngkin rode a wave of conservative frustration over school mask mandates, delayed return to in-person learning, and instruction about race.

“If we read the tea leaves from Virginia, there are reasons to expect that education will be prominent” in the Michigan governor’s race as well, Reckhow said.

Whitmer, the incumbent Democrat, will likely take heat from Republicans who blame her for widespread school shifts to virtual instruction in the wake of the pandemic, even though she has only twice ordered schools shut down - at the start of the pandemic, and in the fall of 2020, when she ordered high schools closed for in-person instruction because of surges in positive cases. She and lawmakers negotiated in 2020 to give districts the flexibility to move learning online.

She is likely to tout her record of investment in schools including a massive expansion of the Great Start Readiness Program, the state’s free preschool program that now serves far more students thanks to federal COVID relief money.

Republicans, though, are likely to attack her veto of a plan to give tax breaks to reimburse donors for contributions to Opportunity Scholarships for private school tuition. Democrats oppose the scholarships, saying the scholarships open the door to school vouchers and circumvent a state ban on using public funds for private schools.

With voters frustrated over pandemic-related school closures, Whitmer’s veto provides a point of attack for James Craig, the former Detroit police chief and current frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Reckhow said.

“Republicans’ answer for a long time has been choice – choice in terms of vouchers, choice in terms of charters, choice in terms of home school,” she said. “The Opportunity Scholarship debate is a particular opening for Craig to advocate for more choice.”

Other key issues

Here are a few more issues we’ll be paying attention to this year:

Mask mandates may continue to be a controversial political issue, as some school districts relax their mandates now that vaccines are available for children over 5. In districts that don’t have a mask mandate, we expect to see some parents push for a requirement in the wake of the COVID surge.
Lawmakers likely will continue trying to push legislation that would ban critical race theory in the state’s K-12 schools. The theory is a college-level academic framework that explores the lingering effects of centuries of white supremacy and racist policies that disadvantage people of color. Though there is little evidence it is being taught in K-12 schools, Republican lawmakers in Michigan and in many other states across the country have made banning it a priority.
The surging omicron variant will likely bring more discussions about whether schools should try more aggressive ways to keep buildings open. Already, there is more regular testing of students and staff in schools. Some districts have instituted test-to-stay programs, which require students be tested for COVID in order to remain in the classroom. One such new initiative goes into effect in Detroit on Jan. 31. There also will likely be debate about whether schools can require students to be vaccinated. In the Detroit district, staff are required to be vaccinated by Feb. 18 and Superintendent Nikolai Vitti wants to extend that mandate to students. He told Chalkbeat last week that if state lawmakers won’t require vaccines, then they should “get out of the way” of districts that want to implement such policies on their own. “Don’t put us in a straitjacket to do what we need to do to allow school to move forward with greater consistency.”

91 Philly schools will be remote this week due to staffing shortages

2022-01-07T23:13:29+00:00

The School District of Philadelphia announced on Sunday that it will shift 36 more schools to virtual learning beginning Monday due to staffing shortages caused by the surge in COVID-19 cases.

This brings the total number of schools to 91 that will go remote for a week.

“ We will continue to keep as many of our school buildings open as consistently as possible as long as we are confident we can maintain safe and orderly school operations,” Superintendent William Hite said in a message.

Last week, 92 district schools operated virtually, and the district took the unusual step of having a snow day Friday. Staff at the virtual schools are expected to report in person, Hite’s message said, unless they are sick, isolating or quarantining due to COVID testing or exposure.

Sunday’s announcement comes amid skyrocketing COVID cases and hospitalizations. Nearly 30,000 Philadelphia residents were diagnosed over the past two weeks, and the city is seeing an average of 3,108 cases a day — the highest in the pandemic, according to the city health commissioner.

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has called on the district to pause in-person learning while a safety plan is created, including expanded testing and stricter mask protocols. President Jerry Jordan said last week’s partial return was “entirely chaotic” in school and asked district leaders “to truly come to the table and work with the PFT and all stakeholders to effectively plan for what a safe opening of school buildings means.”

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, or CHOP, and the city’s health department put out new K-12 guidance this week that calls for in-person learning during the current surge that has caused staffing shortages across the district.

The new guidance advises students and staff who test positive to be allowed to return to school five days after symptoms occur, if their symptoms disappear or are resolving, rather than the prior 10-day quarantine recommendation. Testing of asymptomatic students will end. Universal masking in schools will remain. Ten percent of a school’s staff and students now must test positive for a school to close, up from 3%.

After facing criticism from teachers and parents for the rollout, district officials said they remained intent on keeping as many schools open for in-person learning as possible and would continue making day-to-day decisions.

Philadelphia Health Secretary Dr. Cheryl Bettigole has been adamant that the city’s school children are best served by in-person learning. “When we do see cases in schools, the majority of those cases are not coming from in-school transmission. They are coming from at-home settings, from activities outside of school.”

Chicago schools COVID vaccination, testing rates vary widely by campus, data shows

2022-01-07T23:01:09+00:00

At Manley Career Academy High School on Chicago’s West Side, only 10% of students are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. That’s a sharp contrast with Lane Tech High School on Chicago’s North Side where 83% of students have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Even at the district’s regional vaccination hubs – created to make COVID vaccines more accessible to students — rates swing widely from 56% at Theodore Roosevelt High School on the Northwest Side to 19.6% at Chicago Vocational Career Academy on the Far South Side

The school-based COVID vaccination data, which reflects fully vaccinated students through Dec. 1, was obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request. It illustrates the vast disparities in vaccination rates within the city and touches on the heart of the debate that has abruptly shuttered Chicago schools this week — that safety measures look vastly different school to school.

Chalkbeat also obtained data through Dec. 10 showing wide variances among campuses for school-based COVID testing enrollment, which sits at 16% across city schools.

Here are several takeaways from Chalkbeat’s analysis of Chicago’s school-based vaccination and testing data:

Majority Black high schools had an average vaccination rate of 28%, compared to majority Latino high schools, which averaged 57%.
Opt-in rates for school-based testing, like vaccine rates, vary widely by school, with some South and West Side campuses having fewer than five students opting in.
At more than 200 schools, the opt-in COVID testing rates fall short of the city’s 10% threshold goal. At 70 schools, 10 or fewer students are enrolled in the school-based testing program.
Vaccination and opt-in rates don’t always correlate. Some schools with high vaccination rates have lower than average COVID opt-in rates for testing.

School	% enrolled in testing	% vaccinated
ACERO - BRIGHTON PARK	-	16.98%
ACERO - CISNEROS	-	14.56%
ACERO - CLEMENTE	-	11.09%
ACERO - DE LA CRUZ	-	18.64%
ACERO - DE LAS CASAS	-	14.62%
ACERO - FUENTES	-	17.62%
ACERO - GARCIA HS	-	57.62%
ACERO - IDAR	-	15.46%
ACERO - MARQUEZ	-	10.90%
ACERO - PAZ	-	12.25%
ACERO - SANTIAGO	-	13.62%
ACERO - SOTO HS	-	58.44%
ACERO - TAMAYO	-	13.28%
ACERO - TORRES	-	14.59%
ACERO - ZIZUMBO	-	12.17%
ADDAMS	15.10%	14.01%
AHS - PASSAGES	-	10.76%
AIR FORCE HS	6.32%	44.19%
ALBANY PARK	20.25%	-
ALCOTT ES	33.22%	-
ALCOTT HS	14.85%	66.38%
ALDRIDGE	13.36%	-
AMUNDSEN HS	5.50%	75.05%
ARIEL	11.41%	-
ARMOUR	52.34%	13.75%
ARMSTRONG G	6.83%	15.34%
ART IN MOTION	-	26.98%
ASHBURN	15.50%	-
ASHE	2.81%	-
ASPIRA - BUSINESS & FINANCE HS	-	49.15%
ASPIRA - EARLY COLLEGE HS	-	53.23%
ASPIRA - HAUGAN	-	49.59%
AUDUBON	19.80%	-
AUSTIN CCA HS	1.26%	22.93%
AVALON PARK	0.89%	2.26%
AVONDALE-LOGANDALE	9.75%	-
AZUELA	10.06%	19.28%
BACK OF THE YARDS HS	8.24%	68.48%
BARNARD	36.26%	-
BARRY	3.87%	-
BARTON	56.31%	-
BASS	25.59%	-
BATEMAN	20.93%	-
BEARD	8.33%	-
BEASLEY	8.79%	-
BEAUBIEN	12.97%	-
BEETHOVEN	17.69%	-
BEIDLER	0.98%	-
BELDING	18.01%	-
BELL	26.99%	-
BELMONT-CRAGIN	15.42%	-
BENNETT	2.57%	-
BLACK	11.66%	-
BLAINE	17.56%	-
BLAIR	11.47%	-
BOGAN HS	6.94%	32.27%
BOND	8.23%	-
BOONE	27.00%	-
BOUCHET	10.89%	-
BOWEN HS	18.52%	22.56%
BRADWELL	6.92%	-
BRENNEMANN	7.62%	-
BRENTANO	55.90%	-
BRIDGE	11.67%	-
BRIGHT	6.15%	-
BRIGHTON PARK	9.64%	-
BRONZEVILLE CLASSICAL	45.26%	-
BRONZEVILLE HS	42.62%	27.42%
BROOKS HS	19.03%	57.83%
BROWN R	16.03%	-
BROWN W	14.44%	-
BROWNELL	1.19%	-
BRUNSON	17.75%	-
BUDLONG	49.54%	14.89%
BURBANK	5.14%	-
BURKE	5.20%	-
BURLEY	25.43%	17.88%
BURNHAM	20.51%	-
BURNSIDE	3.25%	-
BURR	31.49%	-
BURROUGHS	8.16%	-
BYRNE	2.12%	-
CALDWELL	6.67%	5.45%
CALMECA	3.31%	-
CAMERON	2.83%	9.15%
CAMRAS	30.61%	15.79%
CANTY	6.98%	-
CARDENAS	33.72%	14.96%
CARNEGIE	60.40%	-
CARROLL	1.56%	-
CARSON	2.05%	14.83%
CARTER	6.88%	-
CARVER G	0.23%	-
CARVER MILITARY HS	24.38%	42.26%
CASALS	45.61%	-
CASSELL	6.09%	12.71%
CATALYST - CIRCLE ROCK	-	7.69%
CATALYST - MARIA	-	13.26%
CATALYST - MARIA (HS)	-	49.18%
CATHER	6.57%	-
CHALMERS	27.57%	3.81%
CHAPPELL	34.91%	15.64%
CHASE	19.29%	-
CHAVEZ	43.00%	15.27%
CHIARTS HS	-	64.07%
CHICAGO ACADEMY ES	14.97%	14.62%
CHICAGO ACADEMY HS	10.85%	65.24%
CHICAGO AGRICULTURE HS	10.44%	58.96%
CHICAGO COLLEGIATE	-	23.99%
CHICAGO EXCEL HS	-	7.66%
CHICAGO MATH & SCIENCE HS	-	56.24%
CHICAGO MILITARY HS	22.95%	45.27%
CHICAGO TECH HS	-	31.19%
CHICAGO VIRTUAL	-	33.33%
CHICAGO VOCATIONAL HS	17.22%	19.69%
Chicago World Language Academy	29.66%	-
CHOPIN	3.13%	-
CHRISTOPHER	0.60%	-
CHRISTOPHER HOUSE	-	9.71%
CICS - AVALON/SOUTH SHORE	-	9.30%
CICS - BASIL	-	5.57%
CICS - BOND	-	0.36%
CICS - BUCKTOWN	-	10.50%
CICS - CHICAGOQUEST HS	-	0.00%
CICS - ELLISON HS	-	23.21%
CICS - IRVING PARK	-	15.09%
CICS - LONGWOOD	-	13.31%
CICS - LOOMIS	-	0.00%
CICS - NORTHTOWN HS	-	63.41%
CICS - PRAIRIE	-	8.27%
CICS - WASHINGTON PARK	-	5.82%
CICS - WEST BELDEN	-	12.25%
CICS - WRIGHTWOOD	-	8.20%
CLAREMONT	25.54%	-
CLARK ES	8.43%	10.78%
CLARK HS	10.13%	27.11%
CLAY	3.30%	-
CLEMENTE HS	7.94%	40.09%
CLEVELAND	6.92%	-
CLINTON	30.47%	13.94%
CLISSOLD	15.17%	-
COLEMON	6.70%	-
COLES	1.64%	-
COLLINS HS	4.38%	23.87%
COLUMBIA EXPLORERS	8.64%	15.01%
COLUMBUS	6.70%	8.37%
COOK	3.02%	-
COONLEY	42.76%	-
COOPER	1.53%	-
CORKERY	4.82%	11.86%
CORLISS HS	21.00%	22.76%
COURTENAY	15.38%	-
CRANE MEDICAL HS	9.11%	38.82%
CROWN	7.09%	-
CUFFE	47.11%	-
CULLEN	17.51%	-
CURIE HS	5.23%	62.17%
CURTIS	0.51%	4.85%
DALEY	4.12%	-
DARWIN	13.27%	-
DAVIS M	29.61%	10.71%
DAVIS N	16.48%	-
DAWES	22.20%	-
DE DIEGO	1.94%	-
DECATUR	57.23%	-
DENEEN	23.38%	-
DEPRIEST	14.01%	-
DETT	12.85%	-
DEVER	4.13%	-
DEVRY HS	18.52%	64.56%
DEWEY	14.48%	-
DIRKSEN	7.08%	-
DISNEY	8.25%	-
DISNEY II ES	14.73%	1.75%
DISNEY II HS	10.20%	67.49%
DIXON	5.19%	-
DOOLITTLE	15.23%	-
DORE	11.54%	-
DOUGLASS HS	4.55%	20.93%
DRAKE	59.79%	-
DRUMMOND	50.32%	-
DUBOIS	9.60%	-
DULLES	13.45%	1.80%
DUNBAR HS	2.03%	20.55%
DUNNE	-	-
DURKIN PARK	13.70%	-
DVORAK	0.31%	-
DYETT ARTS HS	34.82%	33.27%
EARHART	4.81%	-
EARLE	44.98%	-
EBERHART	3.74%	-
EBINGER	39.97%	13.53%
EDGEBROOK	37.09%	-
EDISON	66.02%	-
EDISON PARK	14.84%	-
EDWARDS	3.31%	-
ELLINGTON	9.05%	-
ENGLEWOOD STEM HS	4.10%	21.82%
EPIC HS	-	30.89%
ERICSON	5.43%	-
ERIE	-	9.65%
ESMOND	16.42%	-
EVERETT	2.88%	0.00%
EVERGREEN	7.46%	-
EVERS	15.49%	-
EXCEL ENGLEWOOD HS	-	6.46%
EXCEL SOUTH SHORE HS	-	13.90%
EXCEL SOUTHWEST HS	-	12.37%
FAIRFIELD	16.44%	-
FALCONER	1.78%	-
FARADAY	13.04%	-
FARNSWORTH	11.90%	-
FARRAGUT HS	4.74%	45.06%
FENGER HS	32.79%	13.15%
FERNWOOD	1.34%	-
FIELD	2.86%	-
FINKL	8.56%	-
FISKE	6.20%	-
FOREMAN HS	7.03%	44.25%
FORT DEARBORN	1.73%	-
FOSTER PARK	2.50%	-
FRANKLIN	40.28%	-
FRAZIER CHARTER	-	0.00%
FRAZIER PROSPECTIVE	11.59%	13.75%
FULLER	11.50%	-
FULTON	0.92%	-
FUNSTON	1.49%	-
GAGE PARK HS	59.47%	38.61%
GALE	14.80%	-
GALILEO	31.32%	-
GALLISTEL	1.84%	-
GARVEY	17.51%	-
GARVY	19.12%	-
GARY	3.34%	-
GILLESPIE	9.73%	-
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP	-	13.06%
GOETHE	32.88%	-
GOODE HS	15.17%	54.26%
GOUDY	38.67%	12.78%
GRAHAM ES	7.51%	-
GRAHAM HS	32.68%	60.93%
GRAY	50.50%	-
GREAT LAKES	-	4.36%
GREELEY	6.18%	-
GREEN	5.83%	-
GREENE	5.48%	-
GREGORY	1.76%	-
GRESHAM	11.29%	-
GRIMES	4.58%	-
GRISSOM	5.76%	-
GUNSAULUS	36.98%	16.77%
HAINES	10.23%	-
HALE	19.10%	-
HALEY	18.08%	-
HAMILTON	41.65%	-
HAMLINE	4.13%	-
HAMMOND	9.52%	-
HAMPTON	5.77%	-
HANCOCK HS	11.29%	80.00%
HANSON PARK	1.36%	-
HARLAN HS	9.22%	13.95%
HARTE	6.34%	-
HARVARD	6.37%	-
HAUGAN	13.85%	12.44%
HAWTHORNE	24.65%	-
HAY	4.10%	-
HAYT	12.53%	-
HEALY	20.49%	-
HEARST	2.60%	-
HEDGES	12.78%	-
HEFFERAN	5.36%	-
HENDERSON	8.51%	-
HENDRICKS	4.62%	-
HENRY	14.03%	-
HERNANDEZ	22.25%	41.69%
HERZL	15.31%	-
HIBBARD	13.88%	-
HIGGINS	9.96%	-
HIRSCH HS	50.00%	11.63%
HITCH	21.84%	-
HOLDEN	7.77%	14.73%
HOLMES	1.56%	-
HOPE LEARNING ACADEMY	-	0.00%
HORIZON - SOUTHWEST	-	21.02%
HOWE	0.51%	3.50%
HOYNE	-	-
HUBBARD HS	9.88%	57.60%
HUGHES C	-	-
HUGHES L	12.36%	-
HURLEY	23.22%	-
HYDE PARK HS	41.01%	21.87%
INFINITY HS	15.96%	68.42%
INSTITUTO - HEALTH	-	54.33%
INSTITUTO - JUSTICE HS	-	31.62%
INTER-AMERICAN	33.77%	-
INTRINSIC HS	-	55.76%
IRVING	34.01%	-
JACKSON M	2.37%	-
JAHN	18.97%	-
JAMIESON	20.74%	-
JEFFERSON HS	-	20.57%
JENSEN	14.00%	-
JOHNSON	8.30%	7.97%
JONES HS	23.37%	80.79%
JOPLIN	1.58%	-
JORDAN	30.89%	-
JUAREZ HS	3.23%	64.73%
JULIAN HS	18.37%	25.38%
JUNGMAN	10.53%	10.60%
KANOON	3.42%	-
KELLER	43.40%	-
KELLMAN	8.92%	-
KELLOGG	26.98%	-
KELLY HS	7.49%	62.40%
KELVYN PARK HS	4.09%	45.14%
KENNEDY HS	8.66%	55.87%
KENWOOD HS	9.86%	51.88%
KERSHAW	9.31%	-
KILMER	20.67%	-
KING ES	5.71%	-
KING HS	24.76%	38.98%
KINZIE	7.49%	13.56%
KIPLING	9.64%	13.04%
KIPP - ACADEMY	-	8.77%
KIPP - ASCEND	-	4.78%
KIPP - BLOOM	-	7.22%
KIPP - ONE	-	8.60%
KOZMINSKI	36.40%	-
LAKE VIEW HS	4.02%	63.90%
LANE TECH HS	15.41%	83.18%
LANGFORD	1.72%	-
LARA	3.09%	12.09%
LASALLE	35.18%	-
LASALLE II	47.41%	16.03%
LAVIZZO	1.51%	-
LAWNDALE	0.93%	-
LEARN - 7	-	0.00%
LEARN - BUTLER	-	6.82%
LEARN - CAMPBELL	-	0.27%
LEARN - EXCEL	-	0.00%
LEARN - MIDDLE	-	22.32%
LEARN - PERKINS	-	7.78%
LEARN - SOUTH CHICAGO	-	7.16%
LEE	7.67%	14.42%
LEGACY	-	6.40%
LEGAL PREP HS	-	30.16%
LELAND	14.52%	-
LENART	55.00%	11.24%
LEWIS	9.48%	-
LIBBY	2.11%	-
LINCOLN	18.47%	-
LINCOLN PARK HS	7.50%	74.55%
LINDBLOM HS	28.60%	66.76%
LITTLE BLACK PEARL HS	-	30.48%
LITTLE VILLAGE	18.63%	18.93%
LLOYD	2.06%	0.00%
LOCKE A	-	7.14%
LOCKE J	3.91%	-
LORCA	7.83%	14.79%
LOVETT	18.63%	-
LOWELL	2.57%	-
LOZANO	10.92%	-
LYON	21.00%	-
MADERO	2.64%	-
MADISON	83.51%	-
MANIERRE	1.88%	-
MANLEY HS	34.38%	10.39%
MANN	4.44%	-
MARINE LEADERSHIP AT AMES HS	11.15%	66.58%
MARQUETTE	4.18%	-
MARSH	9.41%	12.52%
MARSHALL HS	19.25%	14.02%
MASON	2.61%	-
MATHER HS	5.57%	63.61%
MAYER	26.05%	-
MAYS	19.46%	-
MCAULIFFE	36.43%	-
MCCLELLAN	8.22%	-
MCCORMICK	0.21%	-
MCCUTCHEON	19.74%	-
MCDADE	20.31%	-
MCDOWELL	8.77%	0.00%
MCKAY	3.38%	-
MCNAIR	10.56%	-
MCPHERSON	18.46%	-
MELODY	10.32%	-
METCALFE	8.38%	-
MIRELES	9.27%	-
MITCHELL	45.97%	16.62%
MOLLISON	3.36%	-
MONROE	20.83%	-
MONTESSORI ENGLEWOOD	-	3.45%
MOOS	13.16%	-
MORGAN PARK HS	12.04%	34.98%
MORRILL	5.41%	-
MORTON	3.87%	5.33%
MOUNT GREENWOOD	1.83%	10.25%
MOUNT VERNON	50.00%	-
MOVING EVEREST	-	3.03%
MOZART	42.50%	-
MULTICULTURAL ARTS HIGH SCHOOL	12.02%	48.35%
MURPHY	14.35%	-
MURRAY	22.93%	-
NAMASTE	-	12.24%
NASH	28.51%	-
NATIONAL TEACHERS	21.32%	6.03%
NEIL	14.77%	-
NETTELHORST	22.52%	-
NEW FIELD	36.21%	-
NEW SULLIVAN	11.60%	-
NEWBERRY	10.88%	-
NICHOLSON	39.73%	-
NIGHTINGALE	27.70%	-
NINOS HEROES	2.15%	-
NIXON	20.24%	-
NLCP - CHRISTIANA HS	-	15.18%
NLCP - COLLINS HS	-	17.47%
NOBEL	5.80%	15.48%
NOBLE - ACADEMY HS	-	50.71%
NOBLE - BAKER HS	-	31.71%
NOBLE - BULLS HS	-	46.91%
NOBLE - BUTLER HS	-	27.95%
NOBLE - COMER	-	34.30%
NOBLE - DRW HS	-	24.27%
NOBLE - GOLDER HS	-	57.86%
NOBLE - HANSBERRY HS	-	36.80%
NOBLE - ITW SPEER HS	-	56.35%
NOBLE - JOHNSON HS	-	23.58%
NOBLE - MANSUETO HS	-	62.26%
NOBLE - MUCHIN HS	-	56.12%
NOBLE - NOBLE HS	-	61.02%
NOBLE - PRITZKER HS	-	57.95%
NOBLE - RAUNER HS	-	54.43%
NOBLE - ROWE CLARK HS	-	29.26%
NOBLE - UIC HS	-	54.28%
NORTH RIVER	21.62%	-
NORTH-GRAND HS	10.30%	58.39%
NORTHSIDE LEARNING HS	9.02%	73.66%
NORTHSIDE PREP HS	8.93%	83.19%
NORTHWEST	8.76%	-
NORWOOD PARK	44.76%	-
OGDEN ES	20.92%	8.29%
OGDEN HS	21.02%	61.11%
OGLESBY	1.84%	-
OKEEFFE	6.11%	3.46%
OMBUDSMAN - NORTHWEST HS	-	38.73%
OMBUDSMAN - ROSELAND HS	-	6.47%
OMBUDSMAN - SOUTH HS	-	21.72%
OMBUDSMAN - WEST HS	-	15.05%
ONAHAN	18.28%	-
ORIOLE PARK	19.81%	-
OROZCO	10.18%	-
ORR HS	1.39%	28.96%
ORTIZ DE DOMINGUEZ	0.51%	0.00%
OTIS	17.15%	-
OTOOLE	0.30%	-
OWEN	22.10%	-
OWENS	4.11%	-
PALMER	23.15%	12.65%
PARK MANOR	51.03%	-
PARKER	13.23%	-
PARKSIDE	14.11%	-
PASTEUR	3.63%	-
PATHWAYS - ASHBURN HS	-	22.52%
PATHWAYS - AVONDALE HS	-	41.50%
PATHWAYS - BRIGHTON PARK HS	-	40.95%
PATHWAYS - HUMBOLDT PARK HS	-	30.58%
PAYTON HS	11.23%	79.78%
PEACE AND EDUCATION HS	9.09%	42.50%
PECK	1.37%	0.00%
PEIRCE	28.28%	16.58%
PENN	3.62%	-
PEREZ	16.38%	-
PERSHING	11.75%	-
PERSPECTIVES - JOSLIN HS	-	23.18%
PERSPECTIVES - LEADERSHIP HS	-	23.90%
PERSPECTIVES - MATH & SCI HS	-	22.19%
PERSPECTIVES - TECH HS	-	28.89%
PETERSON	26.13%	-
PHILLIPS HS	12.21%	15.99%
PHOENIX MILITARY HS	11.93%	58.56%
PICCOLO	11.17%	-
PICKARD	8.49%	-
PILSEN	3.49%	-
PIRIE	13.57%	-
PLAMONDON	4.10%	15.83%
PLATO	-	6.06%
POE	57.64%	-
POLARIS	-	5.49%
PORTAGE PARK	14.99%	-
POWELL	5.41%	-
PRESCOTT	23.37%	-
PRIETO	8.50%	-
PRITZKER	40.61%	-
PROSSER HS	8.98%	64.32%
PROVIDENCE ENGLEWOOD	-	6.28%
PRUSSING	11.68%	-
PULASKI	36.66%	-
PULLMAN	25.67%	-
RABY HS	27.27%	22.84%
RANDOLPH	5.08%	-
RAVENSWOOD	26.16%	-
RAY	33.04%	-
REAVIS	1.07%	-
REILLY	2.80%	-
REINBERG	6.77%	-
REVERE	48.40%	-
RICHARDS HS	12.81%	39.08%
RICHARDSON	3.68%	-
RICKOVER MILITARY HS	19.51%	73.73%
ROBINSON	5.66%	-
ROGERS	9.67%	16.18%
ROOSEVELT HS	2.18%	56.32%
ROWE	-	11.85%
RUDOLPH	13.40%	-
RUGGLES	5.45%	-
RUIZ	5.82%	-
RYDER	13.46%	-
SABIN	20.86%	-
SADLOWSKI	10.74%	-
SAFE ACHIEVE ES	-	0.00%
SAFE ACHIEVE HS	-	20.00%
SALAZAR	8.64%	11.72%
SANDOVAL	1.54%	0.00%
SAUCEDO	11.88%	-
SAUGANASH	23.10%	-
SAWYER	6.80%	-
SAYRE	7.89%	-
SCAMMON	14.85%	-
SCHMID	5.29%	-
SCHUBERT	1.44%	-
SCHURZ HS	9.46%	59.65%
SENN HS	7.81%	66.87%
SEWARD	10.33%	-
SHERIDAN	14.72%	15.02%
SHERMAN	10.31%	-
SHERWOOD	14.57%	3.83%
SHIELDS	1.24%	-
SHIELDS MIDDLE	1.54%	31.25%
SHOESMITH	25.48%	-
SHOOP	10.30%	-
SIMEON HS	7.22%	25.93%
SIMPSON HS	26.09%	14.81%
SKINNER	12.26%	-
SKINNER NORTH	39.55%	-
SMITH	31.77%	-
SMYSER	15.30%	12.06%
SMYTH	6.44%	-
SOCIAL JUSTICE HS	7.57%	62.26%
SOLOMON	11.43%	-
SOLORIO HS	7.99%	67.61%
SOR JUANA	27.76%	-
SOUTH LOOP	22.40%	12.65%
SOUTH SHORE ES	11.79%	-
SOUTH SHORE INTL HS	5.15%	42.99%
SOUTHSIDE HS	1.89%	60.22%
SPENCER	4.16%	-
SPRY ES	34.15%	-
SPRY HS	22.73%	50.00%
STAGG	1.61%	-
STEINMETZ HS	5.49%	51.65%
STEM	38.76%	11.63%
STEVENSON	9.76%	-
STOCK	4.98%	-
STONE	24.27%	-
STOWE	7.35%	-
SUDER	36.24%	-
SULLIVAN HS	18.12%	59.06%
SUMNER	21.10%	-
SUTHERLAND	21.29%	-
SWIFT	10.02%	-
TAFT HS	4.40%	56.77%
TALCOTT	24.32%	-
TALMAN	23.50%	15.92%
TANNER	16.83%	-
TARKINGTON	9.76%	12.58%
TAYLOR	17.19%	-
TELPOCHCALLI	24.60%	-
THOMAS	21.37%	0.00%
THORP J	2.76%	-
THORP O	25.91%	13.26%
TILDEN HS	33.70%	25.79%
TILL	0.64%	-
TILTON	21.34%	-
TONTI	17.29%	-
TUBMAN	26.72%	-
TURNER-DREW	10.95%	9.60%
TWAIN	7.97%	-
U OF C - DONOGHUE	-	0.00%
U OF C - NKO	-	0.00%
U OF C - WOODLAWN HS	-	30.89%
UPLIFT HS	16.28%	46.15%
URBAN PREP - BRONZEVILLE HS	-	32.04%
URBAN PREP - ENGLEWOOD HS	-	25.00%
VANDERPOEL	30.59%	-
VAUGHN HS	21.80%	68.10%
VICK	9.12%	-
VIRTUAL ACADEMY ES	-	5.87%
VIRTUAL ACADEMY HS	-	50.75%
VOLTA	6.70%	-
VON LINNE	26.02%	12.91%
VON STEUBEN HS	16.35%	78.38%
WACKER	19.37%	7.46%
WADSWORTH	20.00%	-
WALSH	8.98%	-
WARD J	18.95%	19.02%
WARD L	8.39%	-
WARREN	8.47%	-
WASHINGTON G ES	6.23%	-
WASHINGTON H ES	19.82%	-
WASHINGTON HS	6.10%	49.45%
WATERS	22.22%	-
WEBSTER	2.25%	-
WELLS ES	19.81%	-
WELLS HS	22.93%	36.48%
WENTWORTH	5.41%	-
WEST PARK	1.02%	-
WEST RIDGE	18.44%	12.74%
WESTCOTT	8.51%	-
WESTINGHOUSE HS	19.80%	61.35%
WHISTLER	2.82%	-
WHITE	61.06%	-
WHITNEY	22.78%	-
WHITTIER	13.48%	-
WILDWOOD	13.54%	-
WILLIAMS HS	38.10%	27.12%
WOODLAWN	87.93%	-
WOODSON	9.03%	-
WORLD LANGUAGE HS	6.58%	62.03%
YATES	10.93%	-
YCCS - ADDAMS	-	27.46%
YCCS - ASPIRA PANTOJA	-	29.93%
YCCS - ASSOCIATION HOUSE	-	18.48%
YCCS - AUSTIN CAREER	-	7.69%
YCCS - CAMPOS	-	33.01%
YCCS - CCA ACADEMY	-	7.07%
YCCS - CHATHAM	-	8.65%
YCCS - INNOVATIONS	-	6.17%
YCCS - LATINO YOUTH	-	48.41%
YCCS - MCKINLEY	-	12.28%
YCCS - OLIVE HARVEY	-	15.71%
YCCS - PROGRESSIVE LEADERSHIP	-	5.63%
YCCS - SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT	-	9.42%
YCCS - SULLIVAN	-	5.79%
YCCS - TRUMAN	-	32.77%
YCCS - WEST	-	8.51%
YCCS - WEST TOWN	-	20.45%
YCCS - YOUTH CONNECTION	-	9.52%
YCCS - YOUTH DEVELOPMENT	-	9.09%
YORK HS	-	39.23%
YOUNG ES	1.76%	-
YOUNG HS	11.99%	82.44%
ZAPATA	6.14%	18.90%

Vaccination and testing by school

Elementary students were removed because they became eligible for vaccines only weeks before the Dec. 1 data request.

Low vaccination rates among Black and Latino teens, a surging COVID rate due to the omicron variant, and a botched testing regimen are all issues that have galvanized Chicago’s teachers union in the past week. The district’s opt-in testing approach, in particular, has been a key sticking point in an impasse that has shut down classes in the nation’s third largest school district for three days — and possibly for days to come.

The union has asked for a negative COVID PCR test for each student to reopen. Union leaders have also called on the district to automatically enroll students in school-based COVID testing programs, to set a metric for when to close schools in the event of a COVID outbreak, and to allow more teachers with medical conditions the accommodations to work remotely.

The teachers union has also asked for more transparency around opt-in testing and for vaccination rates to be made public.

Districtwide, about 51% of Chicago Public Schools’ 12- to 17-year-old students are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to figures released by CPS Tuesday. Across the city, 73% in that age group are fully vaccinated, but that does not break out teenagers in public schools versus private ones. The national average for 12- to 17-year-olds is 53%, latest figures show.

About 24% of 5- to 11-year-old students in CPS have received at least one dose, compared with 34% of children in that age group across the city, according to figures shared Tuesday. About 12% of 5- to-11-year-olds in the district were fully vaccinated, according to the Tribune.

However, the city and district averages don’t reflect the wide range of vaccination rates revealed by the data obtained by Chalkbeat, which shows that, at some schools, the vast majority of students remain unvaccinated.

Although the city has acknowledged that rates for both testing and COVID vaccinations are lower than they had hoped and pledged to do more, city health officials and schools chief Pedro Martinez have argued that closing school buildings would be a setback for efforts.

“If we go into a week and another week where we have kids out of school for long periods of time, I worry a lot about what happens next,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s public health commissioner, as the threat of a shutdown loomed.

Chicago Public Schools did not respond to questions regarding vaccination and opt-in testing rates across the district.

Chicago schools have been canceled for three days after the teachers union voted not to teach in-person over safety concerns amid the city’s largest COVID-19 surge.

Vaccination rates lag even at some regional ‘hubs’

Chicago public health officials began 2022 touting progress in the city’s child COVID vaccination rate, after a worrying lag in uptake among 12- to 17-year-olds that persisted through most of the fall.

The role schools play in the vaccination strategy has been a key debate in the dispute between district officials and union leaders, with union leaders calling for more school-based sites. Chicago Public Schools offers four regional vaccination hubs with a regular rotating schedule of appointments, and a mobile van that travels to schools. Many schools have also organized single-day mass vaccination events. Those with events on their calendar next week were making pleas for families to still come.

The union has argued that a regular rotation of school-based vaccination sites would offer parents and families access at pickup and drop off — and that should be a priority. District leaders, meanwhile, have expressed frustration at the low uptake at some of its school-based events, saying this summer, low demand was preventing the district from opening more school-based vaccine centers across Chicago and running them for longer hours.

The district needs “the right messengers” to book those slots, officials said.

“We need teachers to tell their students to go get vaccinated. To tell their parents,” interim CEO Jose Torres said in July.

The school-based vaccination data show a wide variance among the four regional schools that consistently offered vaccines on a rotation each week.

Among the four sites — Theodore Roosevelt High School on the city’s Northwest Side, Richards High School in Back of the Yards, Michele Clark High School on the West Side, and Chicago Vocational on the Far South Side — only Roosevelt, where the student body is majority Latino, reported a rate higher than the 56% average for all high schools.

Richards came close, with 39% of students vaccinated, but only 19.6% of Chicago Vocational High School students were fully vaccinated, data shows.

Across all high schools, rates of vaccination vary widely, with schools in neighborhoods on the South Side averaging among the lowest vaccine uptake more than half a year after pediatric vaccines were made available for teenagers.

High schools with more than 50% Black students had an average vaccination rate of 28.09%. Those with fewer than 50% Black students were much higher at 57.62%, according to Chalkbeat’s analysis.

By contrast, high schools with more than 50% Latino students averaged 56.76% vaccinated. Those with less than 50% Latino student population averaged 37.49%, data shows.

The high schools with the highest vaccination rate in the city, Northside College Prep and Lane Tech High, both had an 83% vaccination rate, compared to an average rate of 46% as of Dec. 1, the cutoff date for the data provided through the records request. Both are selective enrollment, or test-in, high schools.

Board certified pediatrician and internal medicine specialist Dr. Beth Van Opstal says there is a need for consistent messaging about the benefits of COVID vaccines and wonders if a coordinated messaging campaign backed by both the union and the district would boost rates among children.

Van Opstal said she was pleased to see the health clinic at her school, National Teachers Academy, offer vaccinations to the students there. Parents could easily stop by with their children — and as quarantine notices began going out, having a vaccinated child meant fewer days at home (Chicago Public Schools requires unvaccinated children to quarantine, but vaccinated children are supposed to be allowed to continue classes).

Chalkbeat did not report rates among elementary students because the data cutoff was only weeks after the federal government approved vaccine use in children ages 5 to 11.

“It’s a clear message that CPS and CTU could have pushed more – if your kid is vaccinated, your kid can stay at school,” she said.

Van Opstal said she’d like to see a joint effort between the school district and teachers union to boost access to families and spread messaging that vaccinated individuals tend to see milder COVID symptoms.

Health officials have said that students are more likely to get vaccinated if their parents are vaccinated. Auburn Gresham, North Lawndale, Austin, Hyde Park, Avalon Park, Washington Heights, West Pullman, South Deering, Garfield Park, Galewood, and Grand Crossing all averaged a vaccination rate lower than 10% among schools there, records show. Those neighborhoods are also in zip codes with some of the lowest adult vaccination rates in the city.

By contrast, schools on the North Side and in and around the Loop had the highest vaccination averages. The high schools in Network 14, which covers the North and Northwest Side, together had the highest averages among high school networks at 60%.

By contrast, schools on the South Side such as Carver Military, Bronzeville HS, Corliss, and Chicago Vocational High School, averaged just under 30%.

University of Chicago medical ethicist Dr. Will Parker, who is an ICU physician, studied COVID vaccine access in Chicago during the first wave of release to adults over 65. His study documented rates of vaccine access and found differences by neighborhood.

In his initial study, vaccine supply was limited. That’s no longer the issue — Chicago has ample supplies of vaccine doses for children between 5 and 17, but some families may experience barriers to access, he said, such as not having a car to drive to the vaccination site or needing to work instead of accompanying a child to an appointment.

“We should be doing more to lower those barriers of access,” he said.

Opt-in rates for school-based COVID testing remain low

Since the outset, the district’s school-based COVID testing — a key component in its strategy for reopening schools safely — has been mired in problems.

It’s been hampered by a lack of communication, language barriers, poor promotion, a lack of testing supplies, and unstable rollout.

CPS, which contracted with Massachusetts-based vendor ThermoFisher to roll out a voluntary testing program that families had to “opt in” to, is far from the only district to have struggled. Nationally, school districts across the country have had to try and build testing programs and expertise, something city and state governments were struggling, and still struggle, to do.

Chicago’s program asked parents to give their consent online through a platform some families found cumbersome. ThermoFisher was supposed to set up testing at least once a week at every school where children would mostly use nasal swabs themselves under supervision.

After promising a testing program would be ready the first week of school, the district experienced multiple delays across several weeks setting up the program, with some schools saying that, even after the rollout was complete, testing vendors didn’t consistently show up. But the biggest challenge was that, three months into reopening schools, fewer than 10% of students had signed up for the district’s school-based COVID testing.

School-level data obtained by Chalkbeat show that, by mid-December, that rate had increased to 16% citywide but some schools still only had a handful of children signed up.

As of Dec. 10, nearly 300 schools — 58% of district-run schools — had hit the 10% threshold. More than 200 schools still had fewer than 10% of students and – even more concerning – about 70 schools had 10 or fewer students signed up. At more than 20 schools, fewer than five students had opted into testing at Little Village, North Lawndale, Englewood, and Austin schools, data shows.

Union leadership has called on the district to shift to opt-out testing, something city officials have rejected. The district previously stated that it was following guidance from the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention, Illinois Department of Public Health, and Illinois State Board of Education, which “states that testing should not be conducted without the informed consent of a parent or guardian.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday said they would not conduct “a quasi-medical procedure on children without their parents’ knowledge or consent.”

Since the outset, the district’s school-based COVID testing — a key component in its strategy for reopening schools safely — has been mired in problems.

Testing increase at one school required “all-hands-on-deck”

Still, some schools have managed to buck the low opt-in rate through persistent staff outreach.

One principal at a South Side elementary school, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she wasn’t authorized to speak on the topic, said that boosting her school’s rates required a parent-by-parent approach. “As families began to see test results come back, more signed up.”

At Woodlawn Community School on the city’s South Side, more than 89% of students have opted into the testing program — the highest rate across district schools. Marcia Olivier, a school clerk at Woodlawn Community School, noticed the opt-in link sent to parents early on didn’t yield much buy-in. She said she knew early on they needed to do more.

Olivier sent out the link herself, provided paper copies to teachers to be sent home with students, made calls, and met with parents to assist them with completing the online forms. When some parents expressed concern over the nasal swab tests, Olivier walked them through the testing logistics.

Other parents, she said, were wary of filling out their child’s information online.

With the help from teachers, it was an “all-hands-on-deck” situation to make sure they could get as many students signed up to protect students and staff, Olivier said.

Olivier is still working to hit 100% opt-in rates.

Amid a surge of cases, Olivier said her next goal is to employ the same strategies of speaking directly with parents to get 5- to 11-year-old students vaccinated.

“It’s hard work,” Olivier said, “but everyone has to pull together to get that buy-in.”

Tennessee shortens how long schools can shift to remote learning from COVID

2022-01-06T23:56:52+00:00

Teacher and staff shortages caused by another COVID surge have some Tennessee administrators seeking state permission to move schools or classes temporarily to remote learning.

But any switch will only be for five calendar days instead of the seven-day window approved for dozens of districts and charter schools during fall semester.

This week, the Tennessee Department of Education shortened the length of time schools can temporarily go remote. The rollback, officials said, was based on new federal and state guidance halving the recommended isolation time to five days for people testing positive for the coronavirus.

The decision reinforces the focus of Gov. Bill Lee’s administration on keeping Tennessee students in brick-and-mortar schools, even with cases climbing again from COVID’s highly contagious omicron variant.

The state is also in litigation over a new state law that aims to prevent school districts from mandating masks, except when infections reach catastrophic levels.

Nationally, nearly 5% of roughly 100,000 U.S. public schools closed this week during the bumpy start to the new year, according to Burbio, a site tracking closures.

Tennessee got a respite from the virus — of sorts — when heavy snowfall Thursday forced many schools to close and use their days stockpiled for such disruptions. But before the winter weather arrived, the state already was fielding new requests for remote waivers.

By midday Thursday, Commissioner Penny Schwinn had approved all three requests that reached her desk this week. All came from charter schools: Valor Flagship in Nashville and Gestalt Community and Purpose Prep Academy in Memphis.

“Districts also have the option to use stockpile days instead of waivers if they so choose,” said state spokesman Brian Blackley.

Schwinn began granting remote waivers in late August after COVID’s then-emerging delta variant sparked a raft of school closures due to outbreaks among students and staff.

When school leaders worried they’d run out of stockpiled days before winter, the commissioner announced the waiver process. However, she said the option would be narrowly applied for individual classrooms and schools — not entire school systems — “to preserve in-person learning wherever practicable.”

Last fall, she approved 47 of 55 requests for seven-day waivers, including from large districts in Knox and Hamilton counties. Most requests were submitted in September when cases from the delta variant peaked.

Tennessee’s rate of positive COVID cases has accelerated since the first omicron case was confirmed in December. One in every three coronavirus tests reported to the Tennessee Department of Health over the past week has been positive, according to an analysis by The Tennessean.

NYC schools failed to provide students with adequate remote learning access: lawsuit

2022-01-06T21:25:40+00:00

When the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to go remote in March 2020, Queens mom Marie struggled to help her then-seventh grader access coursework using her phone or computer.

Because her daughter had fallen so far behind, she was mandated to go to virtual summer school. Despite obtaining an internet-enabled iPad for summer classes, the seventh grader could not get Zoom or other applications to complete assignments. School officials repeatedly told the family there was nothing they could do, she said.

Ultimately, her daughter had to repeat seventh grade, said Marie, who asked to use her middle name for privacy reasons and is one of five families suing state and city officials over their failure to provide adequate internet access and working devices to city students, particularly low-income children of color. The families are represented by attorneys from from Legal Services NYC, Arnold & Porter, and the Education Law Center.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in New York State Supreme Court, alleges that top state and city officials knew the scope of the digital divide as the pandemic progressed, but failed to properly address it. It claims that the city violated state and city law by not providing a “sound, basic education,” resulting in a disparate impact on low-income children and those of color, and is calling for academic services to help affected students catch up.

Marie’s daughter continued to learn at home during the 2020-21 school year with a faulty device and still had trouble accessing websites or certain assignments, Marie said. The school gave her a new device in October 2020, but that one didn’t work well, so Marie purchased high-speed internet from Spectrum hoping that would solve the problem. It didn’t, she said. According to the lawsuit, she still pays more than $100 a month for that service, which she said she cannot afford.

Marie said her daughter became depressed — she struggled both with school and with being held back a grade as her friends moved on. At one point, Marie said she took her daughter to the emergency room because she had attempted suicide.

“You have no idea psychologically what this did to my child,” Marie said through tears. “As a mother, this broke me. I did everything I could. I did everything I did to try to help her.”

‘Falling behind’

Many children were left without a connection to their teachers and classes, the suit said, which names Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa, former Mayor Bill de Blasio and former schools chancellor Meisha Porter as defendants.

When the families in the lawsuit, as well as others, reached out to their schools or the education department for help with getting or paying for internet, they were instructed to reach out to local internet providers and request discounts, the complaint said.

A basic internet plan costs an average $40 a month in New York City, where about 45% of low-income families don’t have a connection, and 100,000 city children live in homes without internet, according to a 2020 analysis from former Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Even though this lawsuit comes nearly two years after the pandemic started, the attorneys said they only filed it after repeated attempts to contact the education department and find solutions for their clients. Additionally, they said, remote learning in some form will likely persist as children may have to go remote and quarantine if they test positive for COVID as the city experiences another massive surge. (Classes are also remote on Election Day as well as snow days.)

“It’s our hope that the city will act quickly to fix this and not choose to litigate for years before addressing these problems,” said Lucy S. McMillan, one of the attorneys behind the suit. “The point is that these students have missed so much, and they are falling behind. If it takes years to assess this and implement some sort of remediation, that’s not going to be helpful for these students, who are getting older every year. Our hope is that the city will take this on now.”

When the pandemic first shuttered schools, city officials had to quickly distribute hundreds of thousands of devices to students across the nation’s largest school system. The city would go on to spend nearly $260 million on 511,000 internet-enabled iPads that were purchased from the 2019-20 school year through last school year, plus $4 million a month for data plans, according to an audit by Stringer.

But that massive task took months to carry out. Five weeks after schools closed, 19,000 children were still waiting for devices, the lawsuit noted.

Many families struggled to get online, sometimes barred from discounts offered by internet companies aimed at helping school children. Even with internet-connected iPads in hand, families still ran into spotty connectivity, could not get their devices to work, and weren’t able to get timely help from their schools or the education department, the lawsuit said. Internet access was a particular problem for children who lived in homeless shelters, where WiFi wasn’t available and cell phone connection was poor.

When it was time to return for the 2020-21 school year, most children had still chosen to learn remotely full-time, while others were going into their schools part time. Even then, the lawsuit claims, the city didn’t ensure every family had working devices and internet access before classes began.

By October 2020, one month after school started, 77,000 students were still without a device, city officials said at the time. Reliable internet access was also still an issue, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also claims that the education department did not have a consistent system to fix or replace broken devices, especially for families who primarily spoke a language other than English.

Calls for reimbursement

Another plaintiff, a mother who primarily speaks Bengali, had repeatedly asked her then-kindergartener’s school for assistance with navigating remote learning, their city-issued iPad, and internet connectivity, according to the lawsuit. However, she was not provided with a Bengali interpreter, and any written information on how to navigate remote learning was provided in English.

As a result, her family had to purchase internet service, but her son’s device still did not work some days. Now in second grade, her son has struggled with school so far this year, the lawsuit claims.

All five plaintiffs, with children ranging from elementary to middle school, say that they failed to get help from their schools or the education department to troubleshoot technology issues, the lawsuit said.

Among their demands, they are asking the city to fix remote learning so that it doesn’t force families to pay for anything out-of-pocket. They also want city officials to develop a claims process so that families can be reimbursed for any out-of-pocket costs related to remote learning since March 2020.

Additionally, they want the city to assess what sort of academic recovery services are owed to children who struggled with remote learning, as well as other damages and attorneys fees. The education department created a $635 million academic recovery plan this year, including a plan to ensure all students have access to a device with internet service and extra services for students with disabilities.

New York City education department spokesperson Sarah Casasnovas defended the city’s record in getting devices to children.

“Facing the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, New York City launched one of the most robust device distribution efforts in the nation, putting hundreds of thousands of devices into the hands of students,” she said. “We will review the suit.”

A spokesperson for the state education department said it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The governor’s office did not immediately respond for comment.

Inside the decision for this Denver school to switch to remote learning

2022-01-06T01:09:15+00:00

On Monday, more than 100 family members called Denver’s Northfield High School — enrollment 1,550 — to say their children would be absent on Tuesday, the first day back to school after winter break. The reason? Their teenagers either had COVID, were exposed to COVID, or had COVID-like symptoms, Principal Amy Bringedahl said.

Five teachers called in sick for the same reasons, along with an assistant principal, the dean, the facilities manager, and the health aide. Later that day, the school’s relatively new on-site rapid COVID testing turned up a couple more teachers who were asymptomatic but positive.

By Monday evening, Bringedahl and her team had made the decision to switch to remote learning for two days. On Wednesday, they decided to extend Northfield’s building closure for two more days, until Friday. “I believe deeply in what we’re doing,” Bringedahl said. “If we can curtail it now, we have a much better chance of remaining in person.”

As one of the first schools in Denver to announce a switch to remote learning, Northfield may have been a bit ahead of the curve, due partly to the prescience provided by its rapid testing program. But the decision is one more schools are facing as the omicron variant sends COVID case counts soaring. On Tuesday, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said that one in four people tested for COVID in Denver was positive, a staggering rate of 25%.

Though the vast majority of Denver’s 206 schools reopened for in-person learning Tuesday, at least 17 schools had announced full or partial shifts to remote learning Wednesday. Most shifts, whether they affect the entire school or a single grade level, are due to staffing shortages.

Denver principals are responsible for assessing whether they have enough staff to keep classrooms open. But a new policy instituted this fall says the superintendent must approve any full-school building closures, district spokesperson Scott Pribble said.

“We take the decision to switch to remote learning very seriously and we want to make sure that each decision is considered through the same lens,” Pribble said.

Superintendent Alex Marrero has repeatedly said he’s committed to keeping schools open for in-person learning as long as possible. In a Dec. 29 open letter, he called building closures “a last resort because we know how hard it is on families to shift to a remote day on short notice.”

At Northfield, students said the shift to remote learning Tuesday was disappointing but seamless. The most unsettling part was wondering how long the shift would last, and whether it would be a repeat of the “extended spring break” of March 2020 that turned into months of remote learning. Denver high schools didn’t reopen for in-person learning until January 2021.

“Planning ahead for the rest of the year, it’s like, should I be worried about this extending longer?” said Northfield High junior Hola Maka, 16. “Should I be planning for prom? Should I go buy my prom dress or should I buy more pajamas?”

In an email to families Wednesday, Bringedahl said the school doesn’t anticipate a long-term return to remote learning. However, she said her teachers are prepared to make short-term shifts on the fly. For the entire fall semester, Bringedahl said she told her staff every day to bring home everything they’d need to teach online. Northfield only had to go remote one other time, on a single day when 15 staff members were absent, Bringedahl said.

Other days, Northfield teachers covered for each other, giving up their planning periods to teach their colleagues’ classes when the school couldn’t find a substitute. If no teacher could cover, the school would combine classes, sometimes switching locations from a classroom to the library, which can hold more students, Bringedahl said.

That situation isn’t ideal for student learning or staff morale, Bringedahl said, and the possibility that Northfield would have to scramble this week played into the decision to go remote. Pivoting to online learning also allows students who would otherwise be absent to attend their classes virtually. Most absent students have mild COVID symptoms, are asymptomatic, or are healthy but quarantined and can still learn online, she said.

“That learning loss is significant for kids when they’re quarantined and can’t be in the classroom,” Bringedahl said. “Being remote provides them with that opportunity to continue with their learning.”

While the transition to remote learning went smoothly for Northfield this week, students said being online brought back feelings of despair and a lack of motivation.

“It’s back to the whole 2020 [thing] of cameras off, you don’t want people to see you,” said Northfield High senior Eduardo Hernandez, 18. Being in class Tuesday and Wednesday felt like “just hearing the teacher talk and their face and their voice” for the entire period, he said.

Senior Elliott Guinness, 18, said he was looking forward to seeing his friends in person this week but he’s not surprised that didn’t happen. His vaccinated mother is among the surge of people in Denver who contracted COVID over the winter break, he said.

“Once break actually started, it felt like a rush of people all at once got omicron and COVID,” Guinness said. “At a certain point, students and people my age feel like, ‘OK, I’m kind of over this. Let’s get back to normal.’ And then all of a sudden, it was like the beginning of COVID again.”

District and school officials are adamant that won’t be the case. In her email to families, Bringedahl said extending remote learning until Friday would allow all of the teachers and staff diagnosed with COVID this week and most of the quarantined students to return in person on Monday.

With its on-site rapid testing program, Northfield has more visibility into how COVID is circulating than most Denver schools. It’s the only district-run school participating in the state-sponsored program, which provides the staff to do the testing and pays students to participate: $25 for their first test and $10 for each subsequent one. The school also gets paid $2.50 for each test.

More than 800 students and staff enrolled in the program, which started at Northfield in mid-December. Of the more than 340 tests administered before winter break, not a single one turned up positive, said Melinda Pearson, the school’s communications specialist.

But on Tuesday, when the school opened up for staff and students to come get tested during remote learning, Pearson said 23 of the 209 tests were positive, a rate of 11%. Most of the students and teachers who tested positive were asymptomatic, she said.

Parent Tom Romero, whose son is a sophomore, said he’s thrilled that Northfield is offering rapid testing, and he was glad to see the school pivot to remote learning this week, though he agreed a prolonged switch would be difficult. Students said so too.

“I hope we go back to in-person [learning] next week,” said Maka, a student council member who enjoys the social interaction of school. “I’m hoping this isn’t another April of 2020.”

Omicron upended school this week. Here’s what you need to know about the latest disruptions.

2022-01-06T12:57:29+00:00

It’s been a bumpy start to 2022 for America’s schools.

While most schools reopened as planned, at least 4,500 schools closed their buildings for all or part of this week, according to Burbio, a site tracking closures. That makes this week the most disrupted of the school year so far.

Although the closures affected a fraction of the roughly 100,000 American public schools, mostly in the northeast and midwest, they triggered fears of a broader return to remote instruction, seen by many as an educational disaster. That experience has led some school officials to vow to avoid the practice as much as possible.

“What we do in person cannot be replaced,” said Denver superintendent Alex Marrero. “This is not March 2020.”

But school officials are running into a simple but profound constraint: not enough staff due to the surging COVID cases. Even in Denver, 16 schools have temporarily shifted to virtual instruction because too many staff were sick or quarantined.

Meanwhile, national attention is focused on Chicago Public Schools, the country’s third-largest district, where a standoff between the teachers union and the mayor led to the last-minute cancellation of school Wednesday. It was a stark reminder of how local politics is shaping students’ school experience.

Here are some key takeaways from a chaotic and widely varied start of the new year.

Chicago is getting headlines, but its political dynamics make it an outlier.

Chicago Public Schools was shut down Wednesday after a late-night teachers union vote. Almost three-quarters of the rank-and-file members who voted said they preferred to teach remotely until Jan. 18 or until COVID rates fell, prompting the district to cancel classes. School was canceled again Thursday.

Teachers unions in several other cities have expressed similar concerns about school safety as COVID cases rise. In New York City and Philadelphia, for example, the unions have called for a temporary return to virtual learning. But they have not turned to labor action to prevent schools from opening, making Chicago an outlier — as is often the case when it comes to dynamics between the city and its teachers union.

For now, the result is at least 280,000 students out of school and some big unresolved questions, as the union is pushing for a threshold of COVID cases that would pause in-person learning citywide, an approach that city leaders say is unreasonable and health officials say is unnecessary.

Staff shortages remain the central challenge to in-person learning.

The surge in COVID-19 has left schools grappling with a fundamental challenge: Many don’t have the teachers and staff, like bus drivers, that they need to operate smoothly — or at all. More staff are now sick or quarantined, adding to already steep staffing challenges.

“Outside of Chicago and a handful of districts that announced a shift to virtual learning before Christmas, current disruptions tend to be triggered by cases among staff,” Dennis Roche of Burbio wrote in an email update.

In Philadelphia, district leaders had vowed to keep schools open but have moved 92 of the district’s 216 schools to virtual instruction due to staffing challenges. There were simply too many teachers sick, quarantining, or with pending test results, the district said.

Some schools that have stuck with in-person instruction have also struggled with missing staff, making quality instruction a challenge. One New York City high school sent students to the auditorium Monday. In Broward County, Florida, more teachers were out and in most cases the district couldn’t find a substitute, forcing some schools to double up classes.

More students are missing, too, complicating efforts to keep them learning.

New York City has kept nearly all schools open, but student attendance is unusually low — a reminder that even when in-person learning is available, many students still are receiving little or no instruction. About one third of students were absent Monday, and absenteeism rates tended to be higher in schools with more students of color.

Attendance has been relatively low all year in schools across the country, but the problem has grown with more children sick or quarantined and more parents concerned about the spread of the virus.

“There’s not teaching and learning going on anywhere near what you could feel good about as a teacher and educator,” said one Brooklyn teacher, who had raced to post online content for the many students absent Monday.

In Rochester, New York, 40% of students were absent on the first day back. Across Florida, more students were gone too — 23% were missing in Osceola County on Monday, twice what was typical last month, and 18% were absent in Miami–Dade County. In Hartford, Connecticut, nearly a third of students weren’t present.

This could lead to longer-term challenges as teachers try to catch up students who missed class while moving kids who were present forward. The good news: a number of places, including New York City, saw attendance climb a bit on Tuesday.

Many schools still aren’t prepared for virtual learning, and it still doesn’t work for lots of parents.

At schools that returned to virtual learning this week, educators and families experienced déjà vu. Teachers scrambled to post lessons online, parents cobbled together child care, and students dealt with tech glitches that kept them out of class.

In Philadelphia, some families didn’t find out until just before midnight that their child’s school would go remote the next day. In Detroit, some students are still waiting to pick up laptops to access their online classes. Others had a smoother transition. In Newark, the district gave teachers a few days before winter break to hand out work packets and review with students how to log in to their online classrooms in the event of a switch to remote.

“It’s actually going better than I anticipated,” said Alyson Hairston Beresford, a fifth grade teacher who works with students on the autism spectrum. “A few days to prepare makes a huge difference when it comes to my students who have reading difficulties, trouble holding a mouse, and other challenges.”

Parent reactions have been divided, leaving school officials to walk a careful line. Some families say schools should allow remote learning when positivity rates are at record highs, while others say the academic and mental health costs to students, plus the difficulties for parents, are too high to return to online learning for any period.

That division was evident in Detroit, where many parents supported the district’s decision to go remote through mid-January, while others were critical.

“We do put them at risk going to school, but at the same time, I feel kids are better off having school in person just to get the right education and the right needs,” said Ashley Gutierrez, a parent of three children in the district.

In-person learning continues at many schools, though it remains to be seen if more disruptions are coming.

In much of the country, in-person instruction is continuing as usual, though some districts are stepping up mitigation efforts. Some districts where masks were optional are now requiring face masks, while others are encouraging staff and students to wear medical-grade masks instead of fabric ones.

“We have got about 4,000 N95 masks that we just got in that we’re making available to anyone who needs them,” St. Louis schools spokesperson George Sells told the city’s NBC station this week. “Obviously, we would like to see people using the best quality mask that they can.”

In Colorado, where most districts brought students back for in person learning this week, some districts are tightening quarantine rules, while others are relaxing protocols in hopes of keeping more students and staff in school. Denver schools adopted shorter quarantines this week. The district’s teachers union supported the move, though its leaders said they would have preferred if teachers had to present a negative test to return.

“What we don’t want is someone to come back too early and infect others and cause more cases and more closures,” the union’s president said.

Newark’s return to remote learning comes with some challenges for teachers, students

2022-01-05T11:00:00+00:00

Classes starting late due to technical issues.

Confusion among teachers about whether to work from home or at school.

Spotty attendance in classes, in some cases due to a lack of devices or internet connection.

As Newark Public Schools returned to remote learning for the first time this school year following a recent surge in positive COVID cases across the community, recurrent issues from the previous time the district went virtual cropped up once again.

Overall, however, teachers and students say the first two days back on a remote learning schedule have been better than they expected because they were able to plan ahead.

Teachers were given three days before the winter break to prepare their students for the possible pivot to remote, giving them the chance to review virtual classroom links and codes and provide learning packets. The district is expected to return to in-person learning on Jan. 18.

“It’s actually going better than I anticipated,” said Alyson Hairston Beresford, who teaches fifth grade students on the autism spectrum at Camden Street Elementary School. “My students who have been able to log on are logging on and I’m getting a lot of positive support from my administrators.”

Beresford said she remembers last school year when a majority of her students initially struggled to log on. But after Superintendent Roger León’s letter went out Dec. 20, she had enough time to add key links to their computer “favorites,” making it easier for students who struggle with reading to find the right link.

“A few days to prepare makes a huge difference when it comes to my students who have reading difficulties, trouble holding a mouse, and other challenges,” Beresford said. “I was able to show them to ensure that they were able to log on to the programs, and it’s working so far.”

On Tuesday, the second day of the remote learning plan, some classes were delayed due to technical issues. Abington Avenue School posted on its Instagram account that there were some “internet interruptions due to technical issues.”

Science Park High School student Ashley Lourenco said some classmates weren’t able to enter their virtual classes for 10 to 20 minutes. She added that students have also been having issues with their Chromebooks.

Despite those hiccups, Lourenco said, “remote has definitely been a more smooth transition since it was expected” after the notice to families on Dec. 20 and a follow-up on Dec. 30.

León sent a notice to families Thursday informing them that the district planned to go remote starting Monday due to the surge of COVID cases among students and staff before winter break, which began Dec. 23.

There has also been a huge citywide increase in positive cases. Mayor Ras Baraka said Monday there were 3,895 new cases reported in the city since Thursday. The city’s seven-day rolling average of positive COVID tests soared above 44%, compared with just 2% in mid-October.

Some teachers said attendance was low in some classes, mostly due to students who didn’t pick up their devices before winter break.

“The attendance wasn’t great,” said a Newark high school teacher who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation. “I was missing a few students because a lot of them either still don’t have a Chromebook or they have one but there was something wrong with it, or the internet was lagging.”

Students stopped attending school in the days before winter break, she said, because they were testing positive for the coronavirus or they were identified as close contacts. Because of that, they were absent on the days devices were being distributed, she added.

A high school teacher of English as a second language said her students had some issues navigating the device applications at first but once they were logged on, they were engaged in the lesson.

“I feel it was pretty successful,” said the ESL teacher who asked to remain anonymous. “I was able to get my lesson across and the students asked questions.”

But not all teachers have been having a positive experience.

Some were asked to show up to work in person, even though the rest of the district is working remotely. The Newark Teachers Union issued a statement on its social media accounts that teachers can work remotely, despite what their principals have told them.

Still, those teachers were warned by their school administrators that they would lose personal time if they don’t show in person.

Teachers at one elementary school have had to work from their school building instead of remotely so far this week, said one teacher who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation.

“Pretty much every teacher in my building has expressed extreme frustration with the situation,” that teacher said. “I thought morale couldn’t be lower heading into our winter break, but I can now say that it is indeed lower.”

Most charter school students throughout the city also are doing remote learning for the first two weeks of the year. However, North Star Academy, a charter school system with 14 schools, returned to in-person instruction Tuesday.

In a letter to families, the charter school said families were “encouraged” to get their children tested before returning to school and that free rapid tests would be provided to families who need them.

KIPP, which operates 14 schools including two high schools, sent a letter to families Dec. 31 informing them that students would switch to virtual learning only for the first week of the month with an expected return to in-person learning Jan. 10.

Great Oaks Legacy Charter School and Marion P. Thomas Charter School students are all on remote learning schedules until Jan. 18. In a letter to families, Marion P. Thomas Charter School Superintendent Angela Mincy said the school will test students prior to their return to in-person learning.

Patrick Wall contributed reporting.

Detroit school district shifts to online learning as COVID cases rise

2022-01-04T15:22:31+00:00

The Detroit school district will further delay its return to in-person learning after the winter break as the city’s COVID cases continue to surge.

The district informed families and staff that it will shift to online learning Thursday through Jan. 14.

“Unfortunately, the city’s infection rate continues to climb and now has exceeded 40% for a seven-day average,” the district said in an email to parents early Tuesday morning. “Once the city’s infection rate decreases to more normal levels, then we will resume in person learning.”

In a followup response, Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti affirmed the district’s announcement.

“Opening schools now with this record-high infection rate, coupled with low family and student vaccination rates, would only lead to an operational nightmare of positive cases and excessive quarantining that would lead to staff shortages and student absences,” Vitti said.

The decision mirrors recent moves by school districts across the state and country as the omicron cases surge. Lansing Public Schools announced it would move to virtual classes through Jan. 7 out of an “abundance of caution.” Ann Arbor Public Schools began the new year with remote learning and plans to return to in-person instruction by Jan. 10.

Other school districts opted to remain in person to begin the new year. In their decisions to bring back students on Monday, Both Kalamazoo Public Schools and Royal Oak Schools brought back students, informed district families in letters that they would continue to observe state and federal COVID-19 safety measures such as universal masking, case reporting protocols, and social distancing.

“Although a handful of Michigan school districts have chosen to revert to remotelearning, our district’s decision to remain in person is based on the fact that our layered mitigation strategies have successfully resulted in extremely low school-based transmissions,” said Kalamazoo Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri in a letter to families and staff on Monday.

The district reported more than 100 students who previously participated in virtual school over the fall opted to return to in-person learning.

Both school districts applied for rapid home tests through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ MI Backpack Home Test program. The pilot program plans to provide free antigen tests to Michigan students and school employees who want them.

The Detroit district initially postponed the return to school until Jan. 6.

It also adopted a new COVID testing policy that requires students learning in person to consent to a weekly test. Students who do not submit to testing by Jan. 31 will be enrolled in the district’s virtual school.

Eligible Detroit school district students will be able to pick up laptops at their schools Thursday or Friday or early next week, according to the school district. All laptops are expected to be returned before in-person instruction resumes.

Many Detroit school district parents and employees approved of the district decision in light of safety concerns in discussions on social media, with many expressing their disappointment that COVID case numbers across the city were high.

Ashley Gutierrez, a parent of three children at Munger Elementary-Middle School, was critical of the district’s decision given past student challenges with online learning, as well as the logistical hurdles for parents who can’t stay at home.

“I can’t give my kids what the teachers would give them at school,” Gutierrez said. “We do put them at risk going to school, but at the same time, I feel kids are better off having school in person just to get the right education and the right needs.”

But Kendra Visser Lincourt, an art teacher in the Detroit school district, said “It’s the safest call for kids and staff.”

“With the current numbers it is not safe to have 150 kids in and out of my art room every day. I am very relieved to know that, starting the second semester, every face-to-face student needs to test weekly.”

Newark schools will start 2022 remote as COVID cases rise

2021-12-30T23:46:03+00:00

Updated 12/31/21: Newark schools will switch to fully remote learning after the holiday recess ends Jan. 3 and keep students home for at least two weeks as COVID cases continue to climb in the city, officials said Thursday evening.

Superintendent Roger León said the district made the decision after consulting with the city health department about the recent surge in infections. Students were told to prepare for the possibility of remote learning before leaving for winter break and are expected to return to classrooms on Jan. 18.

“This is not the news I want to be sharing with students and their families at this time because we need to continue in-person instruction,” León said in a statement, “but the health and safety of students and staff remains the top priority.”

In the week before winter break, Newark Public Schools reported that more than 200 students and 230 employees tested positive for COVID, according to the district’s online database.

Newark became the largest school district in New Jersey to announce the shift to a fully remote plan for students, a consequential decision likely to affect attendance, learning loss, and student mental health. It joins several other districts that recently decided to revert to at-home learning, including Paterson, East Orange, and Jersey City.

Districts across the country are considering a return to remote instruction as the omicron variant of the coronavirus fuels the latest surge in cases, causing more students and staff to quarantine as schools struggle with teacher shortages.

New Jersey reported nearly 28,000 new COVID cases on Thursday, the highest single-day number of positive tests since the pandemic began nearly two years ago. The mounting case count is partly due to an increase in testing, as well as the highly contagious omicron variant.

Newark reported 1,162 new cases and one death from Monday to Wednesday, according to Mayor Ras Baraka, who himself recently tested positive for COVID. The city’s seven-day rolling average of positive COVID tests has soared above 38%, compared to just 2% in mid-October.

“Our test positivity rate is extremely high,” Baraka said Wednesday. “This thing is very, very contagious.”

The city recently reinstated an indoor mask mandate, and Baraka signed an executive order on Monday requiring anyone age 5 and up to show proof of vaccination before entering businesses or public facilities beginning Jan. 10.

While Newark classrooms are closed, students can pick up a week’s supply of meals at select schools on Mondays from 8 to 11 a.m. District officials said they expect the city will reopen sites where working parents can drop off their children, who will do online learning under adult supervision.

“We will do everything to protect our children in this fight against this horrible virus and we will get back to in-person instruction as soon as possible,” said Newark school board president Dawn Haynes in a statement.

Newark’s winter recess was originally scheduled to begin Christmas Eve, with early dismissal the day before, but was moved up to start a day earlier in light of a sharp uptick of positive cases among staff and students districtwide.

Just before the break started, at least 90 classrooms were following a fully remote schedule due to quarantines and positive cases. Similar trends were also occurring at charter schools throughout the city. There were at least two full school closures and increases of positive cases recorded on some school COVID dashboards.

In a letter to the school community on Dec. 20, León said families should be prepared for a “potential pivot to remote instruction” after the winter break. He asked staff and teachers to confirm families had internet access, devices, school materials, and links or codes for virtual classrooms.

During a Facebook live event on Dec. 22, Dr. Mark Wade, Newark’s health department director, urged city schools to go remote as COVID vaccination rates among children remained relatively low and transmission was sharply rising. He noted at the time that 50% of all positive COVID cases in Newark in recent weeks were coming from school-aged children.

In Newark, about 56% of children ages 12-17 are fully vaccinated, according to the state’s dashboard. The dashboard doesn’t provide data for fully vaccinated children between 5 and 11 years old in the city, but it does show that about 2.3% of children in that age group statewide have had at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.

“I cannot stress it enough — vaccinate, get the booster if it’s your time to do so, wear a mask, wash your hands, and practice social distancing,” León said during a school board meeting on Dec. 21.

The Newark public school district recently launched an online COVID dashboard for community members to keep track of positive cases in the district. From Dec. 20 to 26, 202 students and 233 district employees tested positive, according to the district data. Though classes were in session only three days that week, some schools reported a cluster of cases, including 25 students at Central High School, 16 students at Malcolm X Shabazz High School, and 13 employees at University High School.

District officials previously said that when staff and students return to in-person instruction, weekly COVID testing would resume. However, only about 30% of the 37,000-plus students in the district have submitted consent forms to get tested, leaving out the vast majority of students from receiving in-school testing.

León also previously said he was considering a “test-to-stay” program that would keep students in school if they are close contacts and have a negative test result, instead of having them quarantined at home for seven days, as New Jersey’s Department of Health recommends.

Correction: This story has been updated to note that Newark Public Schools launched an online database of COVID cases in the district.

What happens if Newark pivots to remote learning in January? Here’s what we know.

2021-12-23T00:00:20+00:00

Over the last month, positive COVID cases among Newark public school students more than tripled — with the highest spike of 321 cases seen in the days before winter break, according to figures the district shared this week.

The state’s largest school district went from having only four classes doing remote instruction as of Dec. 15 to 90 classes on a fully remote plan less than a week later. The shift came ahead of the winter break that was rescheduled to start a day earlier due to the increase in COVID positive cases in the district.

“Had it not been for the winter break, there would be entire schools shutting down,” said John Abeigon, the teachers union president, on Dec. 22.

Some districts in New Jersey, including Irvington and Paterson, have already announced they would not return to in-person classes after the holiday recess. Irvington, which neighbors Newark, plans to do remote instruction through Jan. 10. Paterson said it would keep students remote for the first two weeks of January.

But Superintendent Roger León said at a school board meeting on Dec. 21 that he hopes not to move in that direction after break. Gov. Phil Murphy also said this week that state officials would try to keep students in person.

“We’re hoping not to go into remote instruction in January,” León said at the meeting.

Still, students, families, and staff were told in a letter from the district on Dec. 20 to prepare for the possibility of going remote should high COVID positive cases warrant that shift.

Newark health department director Dr. Mark Wade strongly advised city schools go remote in light of recent data that showed half of new COVID cases in the city were from school-aged children. The recommendation came the Wednesday before break during a coronavirus update on Facebook with Mayor Ras Baraka.

“We do seriously have to look at going back to remote learning and minimizing the interaction that kids have — to protect them and to protect the rest of the family, particularly our elderly and those of us with underlying chronic conditions,” Wade said.

During the winter break, district officials said there would be deep cleaning throughout the 60-plus school buildings and teachers would be asked to present negative tests before returning in January.

Here’s what else we know:

How bad are COVID cases in the district?

Since July 1, there have been 750 positive COVID cases among students, with the overwhelming majority of those recorded after Nov. 23, León said. Prior to Thanksgiving, the district had less than 200 positive cases among students, he said.

Between Dec. 15 and Dec. 21, there were around 321 cases reported among students, according to data shared by the district in emails.

Among staff members, 507 have tested positive this school year and a similar increase was seen after the November holiday break. León noted that 578 positives were recorded among staff during the first 15 months of the pandemic, while the latest figure is just from the last five months.

“We must remain vigilant in all of our efforts,” he said. “I cannot stress it enough — vaccinate, get the booster if it’s your time to do so, wear a mask, wash your hands, and practice social distancing.”

In Newark, 56% of children ages 12-17 are fully vaccinated, according to the state’s dashboard.

Are schools testing students and staff?

Though it took weeks after the first day of school to implement weekly COVID testing, district and union officials said testing is now in full swing at all district schools for staff and for students whose families have completed consent forms.

In October, only about 9,000 students — or 24% of the student body — had opted in to get tested. As of Dec. 21, more than 12,000 students had opted in, León said at the school board meeting. That number is still fairly low considering there are more than 37,000 students in the district.

Board co-vice president Vereliz Santana asked the district to find ways to incentivize families to fill out the consent forms for testing and to post regular reminders.

“I’m really honing in on the testing piece because we know the omicron [variant] is spreading and COVID testing is a critical piece in terms of containment,” she said at the board meeting Dec. 21.

Some parents say, however, that despite submitting consent forms, there has not been consistent testing of their children. District officials said parents should reach out to their child’s homeroom teacher or school principal to make sure testing is going on.

Prior to returning to classroom January, teachers will need to get tested.

“We need testing during the holiday,” Abeigon said. “We need to know what’s going on in terms of staff numbers, how many are testing positive and how many are close contacts. That will determine whether we can open up a school or a district.”

District officials said some schools might pivot to remote instruction, while the rest of the district remains in-person and that these decisions would be made on a classroom or school basis.

Recently, state officials said they were considering piloting a “test to stay” program that would allow close contacts to test negative and avoid quarantining. León said he was also considering that for the district.

“The test to stay option is something that we don’t have in play but we will definitely be looking at that very carefully,” León said.

What happens if schools go remote?

Staff and teachers reached out to families to make sure they had internet access and urged students to take home district-provided devices prior to the break. They also made sure links and virtual classroom codes were working, Abeigon said.

Virtual instruction would be synchronous and students will be marked present for a full day “if they participate in all of the synchronous, live learning periods scheduled for that school day,” the district’s amended remote instruction plan states.

León said he confirmed with the city that learning pods would reopen for children whose parents have to go to work while they’re remote learning, similar to the ones that were opened throughout the city last year.

“If the entire district is to go remote, we will open meal distribution sites at the same locations from last school year,” León said. That information would be posted on the district website, he added.

After schools shut down in March of 2020, the district opened food distribution sites throughout the city for families of students to pick up grab-and-go meals.

Any decisions about pivoting to remote instruction would be communicated to parents and posted on the district or school’s website, León said.

Omicron and schools: What we know now

2021-12-22T17:37:08+00:00

As the omicron variant of COVID spreads rapidly, schools are facing a fresh round of questions about how to respond.

This latest curveball comes at an awkward time, with some schools already closed for winter break or open for only a few days this week. And it remains to be seen exactly how substantial this wave will be, top health officials say, which will depend on whether omicron cases end up being less severe and whether more Americans get vaccinated and boosted.

What is clear is that some school systems are already adjusting course, but most have not yet made big changes to their plans for schooling in January or in-person learning this week. Here’s what we know so far.

Rising case numbers have caused disruption, but not widespread closures

The school tracker site Burbio estimated over 600 of the tens of thousands of American schools were unexpectedly closed at the start of this week. That’s an uptick from the prior weeks, but much lower than some weeks in November.

Local reporting in Maryland and New York suggests many of those schools saw dramatic spikes in cases among students and staff. Washington D.C.’s school district also announced Tuesday that it would extend winter break two days in January.

Even where the virus is surging, big school systems are staying open. In New York City, seven schools were closed and another 45 “under investigation” Monday, and some principals made it simpler for students to attend from home. The mayor has said wider closures of the system’s 1,600 schools are off the table, though those decisions will be made by a new mayor in January.

In Chicago, the schools chief said Tuesday that he expects schools to reopen as planned after the break, though individual classrooms could close. And in Philadelphia, district leaders said Tuesday they have no immediate plans for a shift to remote learning, though eight schools are temporarily closed.

The exception to that trend, for now: Prince George’s County Schools in Maryland, which drew headlines for its recent decision to switch to virtual learning until mid-January.

There are signs more are considering a switch, though. On Monday, the superintendent of Newark Public Schools warned parents and educators that the district was preparing for a “potential pivot to remote instruction” in January.

Some districts now lack the legal authority to entirely close on their own, like those in Tennessee, though individual schools there were granted permission to shutter for brief periods this fall in response to the delta variant.

There is widespread concern in the education community about the effects of additional school closures

Many educators and policymakers are warning against school building closures as a response, based on the academic, social, and economic effects of last school year’s widespread remote learning on students and families.

Students fell behind where they would normally be academically — especially low income, Black, and Hispanic students. This “learning loss” appeared to be worse when students received less in-person instruction.

Loss of in-person learning also means missed opportunities to connect with peers. One study found that students who learned virtually scored slightly worse on a survey of social and emotional well-being — like whether they felt that an adult at school cared about them and were generally feeling happy.

“We have seen the devastating impact of school closures and long-term virtual instruction on student learning here in Maryland and across the country,” Maryland schools chief Mohammed Choudhury said Monday. “When COVID-19 transmission increases and health measures become a necessity, schools must be the last places to close.”

Over the course of the pandemic, the research has been mixed on whether keeping schools open contributes to community spread of COVID, though conditions are continuously changing.

Unlike last year, children over 5 can now be vaccinated, although vaccination rates for younger children remain low.

Omicron appears more likely to infect vaccinated people than delta, which could make staffing shortages worse

Schools across the U.S. have struggled with shortages of bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and even teachers for months. Substitute teachers have been in particularly short supply, leaving schools with little wiggle room when educators are home sick or quarantining.

Prince George’s County, for instance, reported that hundreds of staff were either out sick with COVID or quarantining because of exposure to the virus.

Those staffing gaps contributed to a few districts’ decisions to briefly return to virtual learning over the last month. The challenges were widespread enough to prompt Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to ask states and districts to consider urgent new efforts to add staff, from signing bonuses to legal shifts that would allow retired educators to return to buildings.

The World Health Organization warned Monday that people who have been vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID are more likely to contract the new, fast-spreading variant than they were the delta variant. That could mean additional staff absences — even when vaccination rates are high — and more building closures where schools are already short-staffed.

The CDC is recommending schools utilize “test to stay,” which could keep more students and staff in school during a surge

In places like Colorado, the delta variant has posed a months-long threat to schools’ normal operation. There, school-based COVID outbreaks have been common, but schools switching to remote learning have been rare — largely due to relaxed quarantining rules.

More schools are taking steps in that direction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week endorsed “test to stay,” a protocol that allows unvaccinated students who would have had to quarantine after COVID exposure to instead remain in school if they have no symptoms and regularly test negative.

A variety of districts have adopted the practice, and state officials in New York and New Jersey signaled support on Monday. In places where most students haven’t given consent for frequent testing, the logistics of a true “test to stay” program remain difficult. Chicago is piloting it in just one school.

Districts are beginning to rely more on at-home testing, another tool to monitor and limit spread. Chicago is distributing 150,000 at-home tests meant for students before returning after winter break, and D.C. is asking families and staff to use the extended spring break to pick up tests of their own.

At-home rapid tests may be more accessible soon, too. President Biden announced Tuesday that Americans will be able to request free tests to be delivered to their homes starting in January.

Remote instruction, excused absences: Some NYC schools take matters into their own hands as COVID cases mount

2021-12-21T00:11:10+00:00

At one school in the Bronx, students will eat in their classrooms because there isn’t enough staff to supervise the lunchroom — almost 20% of employees are either sick with COVID-19, or showing symptoms and trying to get tested, according to an assistant principal there.

In at least three schools in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, administrators decided to pivot to remote learning after a dozen people at each of their campuses tested positive, giving students the option to come into the building to log in to their classes if they can’t stay home.

And one elementary school in Queens told entire classes to stay home, despite city guidance that only close contacts have to quarantine, because it was taking too long to report and confirm positive cases through the official channels.

As coronavirus cases spike in New York City, school leaders are taking matters into their own hands to respond to positive cases and staffing shortages within their communities. Calls are also rising to increase COVID testing within schools, as citywide more than 20% of students were absent and some campuses saw even sharper declines in attendance. Some schools are even encouraging students to stay home by offering excused absences and access to remote work.

The mounting cases coincide with a short week: schools close for winter break on Dec. 24. By the time students and staff return, it will be up to a new mayor to decide the safety and health policies for the nation’s largest school district. Mayor-elect Eric Adams takes office Jan. 1 and classes resume just two days later.

Officials with his campaign did not respond to comment. The incoming chancellor, David Banks, declined to comment.

Test to stay?

Gov. Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, announced that 2 million at-home tests are on their way to schools across the state, part of a strategy to help districts implement new quarantine measures referred to as “test-to-stay” after the winter break. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently endorsed the approach, which allows students to stay in school after potential exposure to the coronavirus, as long as they are frequently tested.

Hochul also said she wants schools to accept rapid test results to return to classes. In New York City, some educators have balked for a different reason, saying that the education department won’t acknowledge positive results from at-home tests, even at a time when some New Yorkers are spending hours waiting in line for a lab test.

Incoming New York City Comptroller Brad Lander on Monday called on the city to require a negative COVID test from students and staff after the winter break. He said the city should give school communities priority access to testing ahead of the return to classes, and send rapid tests to schools to have on-hand for anyone who isn’t able to get swabbed.

Chicago recently took a similar approach, mailing at-home tests to students, but there’s no requirement to show a negative test to return to class.

Outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday stuck to his message that schools are safe and did not outline any additional steps the city would take to address mounting cases for the remaining days that schools are in session and under his watch.

“We’re dealing with a temporary phenomenon. We have tremendous tools to deal with it because school communities have been so safe,” he said at a press conference.

De Blasio has promised to ramp up staffing in the city’s Situation Room, an interagency response team that handles testing and contact tracing of cases among school communities. Education department officials did not answer questions about the current Situation Room staffing levels, only saying that it has begun to double, to more than 500. Also in response to the backlogs, the education department has given principals more leeway to make their own quarantine decisions.

School leaders on Monday said there are still major delays in response times, or even just being able to report positive cases.

There were seven schools closed and another 45 under investigation as of Dec. 20.

Cases rise, schools scramble

In the meantime, schools have begun to act on their own.

Leaders from the Brooklyn New School, a progressive elementary school in Carroll Gardens, sent an email to families on Sunday night about the “concerning” increase in cases over the past 72 hours, and said they were having challenges reaching the Situation Room to communicate about new positive cases among staff members and students.

The school was working hard to make sure to notify close contacts as soon as possible, but said, “It seems that each time we complete the notifications for one case, we hear of another,” the email said.

As several classrooms had to pivot to remote learning over the weekend, several families expressed concerns about sending their children to school.

“If you wish to keep your child at home as a health and safety precaution, please notify your child’s teacher,” the email said. “We must consider safety first right now.”

Later that evening, Shane Aslan Selzer got an email from her third grader’s teachers saying that the Brooklyn New School would be able to offer in-person and remote options for all families this week.

Acknowledging that the rising cases were “troubling,” Selzer didn’t hesitate to send her child, who had two doses of the COVID vaccine and will be considered fully vaccinated by Tuesday. She worried that a teacher might not be leading her son’s class.

“I want educational opportunities for my child,” she said “We’re in the third academic year of this affecting our kids. I’m not willing to go back to the March 2020 mentality. We’ve learned a lot since then, haven’t we?”

Science teacher Mike Stivers spent Monday morning handing out fliers in front of his school, Millennium Brooklyn High School in Park Slope, calling on the city to scale up access to COVID testing.

His school is under investigation for a possible outbreak after a number of positive cases there, but Stivers said most of them were detected by tests taken out of school. Teachers from his campus, which also includes Cyberarts Studio Academy and Park Slope Collegiate, signed an open letter demanding in-school testing for anyone who has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, and for random testing conducted on schools to begin to include vaccinated students and staff.

“We want schools to be open but obviously we want them to be safe, too,” Stivers said. “I think there is a broad sentiment that the testing is not enough.”

While cases mount, many families have decided to keep their children home. One assistant principal in Brooklyn, who asked not to be named so that she could speak freely, said that about 130 students out of 500 were quarantined. Only about 120 showed up in-person for classes on Monday.

The citywide attendance rate was 79%, down by nearly 10 percentage points from last week’s average.

The Brooklyn assistant principal said the school marks students as present, even if they’re out because of health concerns, because families might otherwise run the risk of involvement with the Administration for Children’s Services, which investigates parental abuse or neglect. The education department has promised to work with families who remain fearful of the virus, but some have reported being investigated by ACS for keeping their children home.

The assistant principal said she was “really angry that we’re back in this position.”

“I kept my own kid home this week. Not worth the risk,” she said.

COVID uptick prompts Newark schools to prep for potential shift to remote after break

2021-12-20T23:22:53+00:00

As COVID cases continue to rise, Newark schools are preparing to potentially switch to remote learning after winter break, which will start a day early for students, Superintendent Roger León announced Monday.

“With the number of positive cases on the upswing, we cannot let our guard down,” León said in a letter to the school community. “We are redoubling our efforts to be prepared for any necessary changes and a potential pivot to remote instruction.”

Schools throughout the city and state have seen a rise in the number of positive cases among staff and students in the weeks after the Thanksgiving break. Cases among staff and students throughout New Jersey schools sharply rose the week of Dec. 12 to 6,947, an increase of 79% from two weeks prior, NJ.com reported.

Entire classrooms and grades in Newark have already switched to remote learning ahead of the winter break, which for most schools is scheduled to start on Friday with a return on Jan. 3.

Newark Public Schools had an early dismissal scheduled for Thursday, but now students will have that day off, León said. A staff development day originally scheduled for January will be moved to Thursday, he added.

Before the break starts, school leaders and staff will help students and families with a remote instruction plan, including confirming the availability of technology, internet connectivity, materials, and all necessary links and codes to access virtual learning, Leon said in his letter.

“All students should be reminded to take their Chromebooks home this week,” he said.

When it comes to a potential shift to remote instruction, León said, “some may move to that point sooner than others, but we all will be prepared if and when necessary.”

There are plans to deep clean the school buildings during the break, he said.

In-person instruction and tutoring will resume after the break “unless circumstances warrant remote instruction for specific classes, groups, or schools,” León said, adding that weekly rapid testing would also resume in schools.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka urged school staff and students to get tested before returning to school after winter break.

“The state, the superintendent, should make sure that every kid, every adult is tested before they’re allowed to come back to school in January after the holidays,” Baraka said during a coronavirus briefing on Monday.

Baraka reinstated a mask mandate for residents and visitors in all indoor public spaces, such as supermarkets and gyms, and said more restrictions would return if the city’s positivity rate continued to rise. There were 1,682 new positive cases in the city since Friday, averaging about 561 cases per day, he said.

“These numbers are jumping badly, not just here but all over the state,” Baraka said.

Gov. Phil Murphy and New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichelli said at a news conference Monday that they were considering a “test to stay” program for after the holiday break that would allow students who are close contacts to stay in school during their quarantine period by testing negative.

Some Newark students switch to remote learning as COVID cases rise

2021-12-17T21:25:00+00:00

With winter break just days away, Newark schools are seeing a sharp spike in positive COVID-19 cases as the omicron and delta variants continue to fuel the latest surge, causing hundreds of students to switch to remote learning.

Throughout the city, entire classrooms have switched to remote learning in recent days, though an exact number is unknown, due to an increase in positive cases among staff and students. Even more schools are bracing for a possible return to remote learning if the latest COVID wave continues into next year.

COVID cases are on a drastic upswing across schools statewide, with staff rates trending higher than student rates, the state COVID-19 dashboard shows.

“Our numbers are growing exponentially and we have to keep an eye on that,” Mayor Ras Baraka said Wednesday, referring to cases citywide.

Traditional public schools and charter schools citywide are reporting more positive cases in the two to three weeks after Thanksgiving than they had in the first few months of school.

Nearly half of the 723 total positive cases among students and staff in Newark Public Schools were reported in the first two weeks of December. About 40% of the 66 total positive cases at Great Oaks Legacy Charter School also surfaced during that time frame. And more than half of the total positive cases at Marion P. Thomas Charter School emerged in a single week of December.

The city’s seven-day rolling average of positive COVID tests reached 9.01%, Baraka said during a coronavirus update on Facebook this week. That rate is more than four times higher than in mid-October, when only about 2% of tests were positive.

“This is growing and it’s growing fast,” Baraka said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that the omicron variant — which spreads more easily than the original strain of the coronavirus — accounts for 13% of new positive cases in New York and in New Jersey. The first case of the omicron variant in New Jersey surfaced on Nov. 28.

The New Jersey Department of Health released updated guidelines on Wednesday for schools that say students and staff who are considered close contacts only need to quarantine for seven days if they have a negative test result or 10 days without a test, instead of the previous 14-day recommendation.

“While a 14-day quarantine period is optimal, the CDC and [state] Department of Health recognizes the value of shortening quarantine in certain circumstances,” Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said.

Among the Newark students who switched to virtual learning this week were those from People’s Prep, a charter high school, as well as two KIPP high schools — Newark Collegiate Academy and Newark Lab High School — and multiple classes from across Newark Public Schools, Marion P. Thomas Charter School’s three campuses, and other charter schools.

Newark Public Schools and Newark KIPP schools, which together teach the overwhelming majority of Newark students, still don’t provide a dashboard to show current positive cases, making them outliers in the city and state among other large school systems.

KIPP spokesperson Jessica Shearer declined in an email to provide COVID data for its Newark schools.

There were 35 positive cases among Newark public school staff the week of Dec. 6 — that number more than tripled this week to 108, said district spokesperson Nancy Deering, who provided the data in an email.

In the same time period, cases among students grew from 72 to 117, Deering said

Four classrooms across Newark Public Schools had switched to remote learning ahead of winter break, Deering said, though she did not specify from which schools.

Parents and staff members from Malcolm X Shabazz High School expressed concern this week over rising positive cases and a lack of communication from the district.

Parent Yvonne Davis told Chalkbeat that the school did not notify her when someone in her child’s classroom tested positive for COVID; she only learned about the exposure by word of mouth. Davis immediately took her child to get tested, and the results were positive.

“Shabazz high school should be ashamed of themselves,” she wrote on Facebook this week. “I’m very pissed right now.”

On Thursday, Shabazz students told Chalkbeat that the school had notified them of a single COVID case. However, a school employee, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation, said staffers have heard the actual case count is much higher and includes both adults and students.

“This is being covered up,” the employee said. “There’s no transparency.”

The school held an emergency staff meeting Thursday afternoon where teachers were told to prepare for a possible return to remote learning, the employee said.

The employee added that the school has become more lax about COVID precautions, with many students and even some teachers declining to wear masks inside classrooms.

“I would say about 50% of the school population is not wearing masks,” the employee said. “These kids intermix, everyone is in each other’s face, nothing is social distanced.”

When asked about parent and staff concerns at Shabazz, Deering said concerns should be brought to the principal, the school’s pandemic response team, or the district. She said that masking and social distancing guidelines have not changed.

‘Bracing ourselves’

“We’ve seen an uptick as all the schools in the state have been seeing immediately after Thanksgiving,” said Pramod Shankar, managing director of operations and performance at Marion P. Thomas Charter School, which has a population of about 1,400 students across its three Newark campuses.

Twenty-nine cases, more than half of the K-12 charter school system’s 56 total positive cases this year, were reported the week of Dec. 13. Most of those cases came from Marion P. Thomas Charter High School and PAC Academy, a pre-K-8 school, according to the system’s dashboard. Prior to that week, the highest number of cases reported in a single week this school year was six.

Overall, 10% of students are currently doing synchronous virtual instruction across the charter school’s three campuses, while the rest are in person, Shankar said.

Principals of all three Marion P. Thomas campuses will hold emergency virtual town hall meetings on Monday to address families’ concerns prior to winter break that begins Dec. 24. There will be mandatory testing of vaccinated and unvaccinated Marion P. Thomas Charter School staff during and after the break.

“We’re expecting a spike,” Shankar said, referring to the return of students and staff on Jan. 3. “We’re bracing ourselves and instituting layered preventative methods, and doing everything in our power to lower how much of a hit we’re going to take immediately after winter break.”

At Great Oaks Legacy Charter Schools, there were 26 cases among students and staff in the first two weeks of December. In total, there are 66 total positive cases, the charter school’s dashboard shows. During the week of Nov. 29, there was an outbreak in one classroom of an elementary school, which caused seven students to quarantine.

About 31 cases were reported across North Star Academy schools during the week of Dec. 6, according to the charter school’s dashboard.

Extend winter break?

Districts across the country have decided to extend winter break by a few days, citing various ongoing issues seen so far this school year, including positive cases, low attendance, and staffing shortages.

Schools throughout Newark have had to tap administrative leaders to teach classes because of substitute shortages.

“It’s rough,” Shankar said, but there have not been any closures or switches to remote learning due to the shortage. “We are getting creative with our scheduling to accommodate any shortages while also having our administrators and other certified personnel in classrooms on days when many teachers are out due to illness.”

In New Jersey, schools would need to get the OK from the New Jersey Department of Education or Gov. Phil Murphy if they wanted to extend break with remote learning days.

Patrick Wall contributed reporting.

NYC’s rising COVID cases strain school response time on quarantines and closures

2021-12-16T23:42:04+00:00

With one week until winter break begins, New York City schools are feeling the strain of rising COVID-19 cases.

Principals are being reminded to get ready in case they need to close a classroom or even their entire school. The education department is also giving school leaders more leeway to act when positive cases are uncovered, as the city’s own rapid response team seems swamped with calls and emails.

This week, some school leaders received calls from their superintendents, and others got emails with a checklist of what’s needed in the event of remote learning, such as ensuring that students and staff have devices and logins.

After the messages sparked rumors that the city was gearing up for a wide-scale shut down, education department officials followed up on Thursday with superintendents and principals. In bold, underlined, red letters, the message said: “There is no plan for a systemwide school closure and pivot to remote learning.”

Amid signs of strain in the city’s Situation Room, the interagency rapid response team charged with conducting test-and-trace investigations in schools, officials said they will ramp up staffing. More than 500 people will work on the team, up from the current 275, according to the education department.

Some principals have been growing increasingly frustrated by the Situation Room’s delays in responding to positive cases, and many parents have been trying to fill the void of information and to make sense of confusing messages.

Dr. Jay Varma, a senior health advisor to the mayor, noted a record-breaking rise in cases in the city, doubling over three days to 7.8% as of Dec. 12.

“We’ve never seen this before,” he tweeted.

The number of school-age children testing positive has similarly shot upwards. On Monday, there were 502 new cases among those ages 5- to 17-years-old, according to state data. By Wednesday, there were 1,085 new positive tests.

The seven-day average of positive tests administered in schools stood at .87% on Dec. 15, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference on Thursday.

Concerns about omicron variant

Anna Bershteyn, an assistant professor of population health at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, said the upticks are consistent with the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the virus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the variant makes up about 13% of cases in the city.

“Honestly, omicron is so transmissible that it’s going to be really tough to prevent cases,” Bershteyn said.

She said the city should double down on the vaccines by encouraging every adult who works in schools to get a booster, while continuing to focus on increasing ventilation, social distancing, and cohorting students to limit exposure. Even though cases may rise, she said, “I don’t think it should come to closing schools.”

“I don’t think it’s feasible to prevent a rise in cases in school children, but it is feasible to make schools a safer place for children to be during the omicron wave, compared to schools being closed and children spending their days in the community,” Bershteyn said.

Education department officials continued to tout the safety of schools, citing that only 1% of classrooms were currently closed for quarantine.

“In anticipation of a winter increase in cases, we already started hiring more Situation Room staffers, expanded in-school testing to include teachers, fully vaccinated our staff and offered vaccinations to every student, and are constantly in communication with schools to reiterate the importance of closely following safety measures,” education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer said in a statement.

Giving principals more autonomy

As rising cases tax the Situation Room, education department officials updated their guidance to principals on Thursday, now allowing school leaders to make the call on quarantines before getting the official go-ahead.

“If a positive case or intervention to a case comes late in the day, principals can call the close contacts of the case and ask them to stay home the next day and wait for further guidance from the Situation Room as long as they have seen a positive COVID test result in their school,” the email to school leaders said. “The principal does not need to wait for the Situation Room to give them the final intervention and letter package before communicating with those close contacts.”

That guidance, however, raised more questions than it answered, said Mark Cannizzaro, president of the Council for School Supervisors and Administrators, or CSA, the union representing principals and other school administrators. He criticized the education department for including the change in an email without working out details with the union, such as who else principals would have to notify if they quarantined individuals or what would happen if a principal’s decision differed from the Situation Room’s call.

“The cases are going up, and [the Situation Room] can’t handle the volume,” Cannizzaro said. “Someone may have made this change with the right intention — let the principals do this so they’re not waiting — but there should have been a meeting about it.”

Given the increased workload for principals this school year, the union recently worked out a deal with the education department to have department officials assume some of the duties of navigating quarantines. The transition was to occur on Dec. 6, but it hasn’t happened, Cannizzaro said.

Parent confusion and frustration

Brooklyn mom Meghan Groome expressed frustration with the Situation Room after both of her children’s schools recently had COVID cases. It took five days for the test-and-trace corps to notify her that her 3-year-old daughter at a city-run 3-K program should quarantine after a possible exposure.

“The idea that the Situation Room has been set up to provide parents with transparent and up-to-date information about COVID cases in their schools has fallen apart,” Groome said. “Parents are hearing rumors and getting information from other parents and teachers, but not actual confirmation from the Situation Room.”

Messages from the Situation Room have been confusing to Bronx mom Alycia Dingle, who received an email last week about her son’s school, the Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics, noting there were more than 20 cases, triggering a school closure. The emails kept coming daily. But it turned out that her son’s school was not closed — another school that shares the same building was. That co-located school, Eximius College Preparatory Academy, made up the bulk of positive cases: 20 out of the 23 found within the building.

The principal of Bronx Center for Science and Mathematics sent a clarifying email that their doors were still open. Still, whether parents were confused or scared, many kept their children home. Roughy 19% of students were absent Tuesday. By Wednesday, 26% remained home, according to public data.

As soon as Dingle saw the Situation Room email with the high case number, she had her son get tested — and he was positive. He now has a fever, cough and fatigue.

Dingle is worried he contracted the virus at school, where both schools share stairwells, the gym, and cafeteria.

About a month prior, Dingle’s daughter contracted the virus. Her school, Soundview Academy for Culture and Scholarship, had more than a dozen cases before Thanksgiving. Though the Situation Room conducted an investigation, they never closed the school.

Detroit district to start winter break early, citing low attendance

2021-12-16T19:50:02+00:00

The Detroit school district surprised families with news Thursday afternoon that all schools will be closed Friday.

The closure will extend the winter break one day. The district cited health and safety reasons in social media posts announcing the closure. But Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said low attendance on remote Fridays was a major reason.

Friday was to be the last of the three remote Fridays in which students were to learn online. Vitti said in an email that student attendance for last week’s online learning day “fell below” the 75% attendance rate the state requires. When districts fall below 75%, they can lose a portion of their state aid.

Historically, days before long vacations bring low student attendance, Vitti added, saying there is “no reason to use the day” to again fall short of the state requirement.

The district also cited concerns that some students who check out laptops to learn during what was to be the last remote Friday would not return them after the winter break. Vitti said schools would be “operationally challenged” if the laptops are not returned. The laptops, he said, are used for day-to-day instruction and testing. During the remote Fridays, students were able to check out a school laptop on Thursdays, but were required to return them the next Monday.

“The day off also serves as an opportunity to address the culminating challenges we have all experienced regarding COVID and social media threats.” The latter refers to threats the Detroit district, and many across Michigan, have been receiving after the shootings at Oxford High School on Nov. 30 that left four students dead and many others injured.

Rumors of a potential districtwide dismissal had circulated ahead of the official district statement. All school buildings will reopen to students and staff on Jan. 3.

In late November, before the Thanksgiving break, district officials announced schools would move to remote instruction for three Fridays in December to address concerns about mental health, COVID cases, and school cleanliness. The district also extended its Thanksgiving break two days.

State finds Denver at fault in case of 7-year-old and online school

2021-12-14T01:29:10+00:00

Seven-year-old Pearl spent the first four months of this school year at home without any instruction.

Pearl has Down syndrome, as well as asthma and other conditions that affect her respiratory system. Her parents didn’t want to send her into a classroom until she could be vaccinated for COVID-19. But Denver Public Schools denied her entry into its online school on the basis that she wouldn’t be able to attend remote classes independently, leaving Pearl in educational limbo.

This month, the Colorado Department of Education found Denver Public Schools at fault in Pearl’s case. In response to a complaint filed by Pearl’s family, a state complaints officer found the school district failed to offer Pearl a “free appropriate public education,” as required by federal disability law. What’s more, the officer found that the violations extend to other children.

“This investigation demonstrates violations that are systemic and will likely impact the future provision of services for all children with disabilities in [the] district if not corrected,” the state complaint decision in Pearl’s case says.

In a statement, Denver Public Schools said it disagreed but would not challenge the findings.

“The district has certainly had challenges and shortcomings during the pandemic, but respectfully disagrees with the statements about systemic issues,” the district said.

“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a period of immense stress and concern for DPS families, including the families of students with disabilities,” it added. “Throughout this challenging time, the district has consistently sought to provide flexible options for families and involve families proactively in decision making about their child’s educational services.”

Denver Public Schools said it will not challenge the state’s decision even though it has concerns with the investigation process and analysis. State decisions cannot be appealed, but the district could file a type of lawsuit known as a due process complaint against Pearl’s family — “an option the district ethically opposes in this case,” its statement said.

Pearl’s family declined to comment about the decision.

Pearl should be in first grade this year. Last year and the year before, she attended her elementary school virtually. In an interview in September, her mother explained that during remote instruction, she’d sit beside Pearl, doing her best to modify the teacher’s lessons to make them accessible to Pearl.

But like many districts in Colorado, Denver Public Schools centralized its online instruction this year. The only option for students who wanted to remain remote was to apply to the district’s new online elementary school. The district’s deadline was June 4.

Pearl’s parents didn’t realize the new online school was the only remote option, the complaint decision says. It wasn’t until early August, when they were told Pearl’s elementary school would not be allowed to offer virtual instruction this year, that they applied to the online school.

Because Pearl’s family missed the deadline, the district considered their request an administrative transfer from Pearl’s elementary school to the new online school. And because Pearl has an individualized education program, or IEP — which details her goals for the year and the services she will receive because of her disability — the district said it first needed to evaluate whether the online school could meet her needs.

That was despite the fact that Pearl had what the district called a “virtual IEP” from the previous school year that described how her services would be offered and her goals met online.

The district told Pearl’s parents the new evaluation would take four to six weeks but that Pearl could attend school in person until then, according to the complaint decision. Her parents “were never provided with student-specific information explaining why [the] district deemed it appropriate for [her] to return in person despite her health conditions,” it says.

School started Aug. 23. Concerned about Pearl’s health, her parents kept her home.

In mid-October, her parents had a meeting with Pearl’s special education team to discuss her enrollment in the online school. “Her enrollment was rejected because [the] district determined she could not attend remote instruction independently on a full-time basis,” according to the complaint decision. Once again, Pearl’s parents were told she could come to school in person. Still worried about her health, they continue to keep her home.

“She has been isolated at home and has not received any special education services during the 2021-2022 academic year,” the complaint decision says.

The state concluded the district committed several violations, including that it didn’t include Pearl’s parents in decisions about her schooling or properly notify them of those decisions. Because Pearl hasn’t received any services this year, the complaint officer also concluded the district must make up by August more than 70 hours of specialized instruction and therapies that Pearl missed.

The decision also extends to other students in Pearl’s position. By March 1, the district has to submit a list of all other students with IEPs who are on the online school waitlist and have missed more than 10 days of school this year. By May 2, the district has to show that it has resolved any issues involving those students and has determined whether they also qualify for makeup special education services.

The state also ordered certain special education staff members to undergo training by April.

Asked how many other students are in Pearl’s position, Denver Public Schools did not provide any data. Instead, a district statement said that “for families that applied by the June 4 deadline, there are no students that remain on the waitlist because the district built the online schools at a size to accommodate those requests.” (There is also an online middle and high school). The statement does not address students who requested administrative transfers, as Pearl did.

“Notably, [the Colorado Department of Education] did not find that this student or any other student must be educated in an online setting to receive an appropriate education,” a district statement said. “The district will continue to make student-centered decisions, involving each student’s family, when considering that question for students with disabilities.”

Could NYC families once again have a remote option? Incoming Chancellor David Banks says yes.

2021-12-13T23:14:31+00:00

Incoming Chancellor David Banks signaled on Monday that New York City may once again offer a remote option to students as coronavirus cases are on the rise.

“In listening to parents, it’s really important, I think, to provide some level of a remote option,” Banks said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “Of course, the most important thing is for kids to be back in school, we get that. But I think what’s also critically important is that we recognize that some parents are still fearful, legitimately, about the pandemic — about our ability to keep their kids safe.”

Banks, who will not officially assume the role of chancellor until January, said he’s not yet sure if such an option will be made available this school year.

Spinning up remote learning in the middle of a school year would represent a major victory for parents who have been lobbying Mayor Bill de Blasio for such an option for months. Some have kept their children at home in defiance of city rules that require in-person attendance.

But it would also be a massive logistical undertaking that would raise questions about whether instruction for in-person students would suffer as a result, as teachers’ time may be diverted toward fully remote learners. It’s unclear such a shift could be pulled off without significant disruption in the middle of a school year.

Banks’ comments came during a wide-ranging interview with Chalkbeat that touched on several key issues.

He indicated many elementary schools need to overhaul the way they teach reading. He may use an influx of funding to help address gaps in special education services. And he’s “not a big believer” in selective-admissions policies that often sort students according to their grades and test scores. (Banks has said elsewhere that he is in favor of expanding gifted programming and specialized high schools, however, programs that are screened generally enroll few Black or Latino students.)

Banks, who previously helped launch Eagle Academy, a small network of public schools geared toward boys of color, also spoke about what strategies from those schools he’d like to scale up systemwide.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

In your opening speech, you said that it’s a ‘betrayal’ that 65% of students of color aren’t considered proficient in reading or math, and that big changes are needed. What concrete changes do you think could improve those numbers?

First of all, I think that it is a betrayal. I think our fundamental approach to how we’re teaching is flawed.

So let me give you one example, which I think is the basis of what we’re going to be looking at as we come into Tweed [the education department’s headquarters]. A lot of our schools across New York City are teaching at the earliest grades through a balanced literacy approach. And I think there’s growing research that’s been talking about the fact that balanced literacy has not really worked, and particularly for Black and brown kids.

The phonetic approach to teaching of reading is something that I think has been missing. I think it’s a part of the reason why so many of our kids right out of the gate find themselves behind. They’re not learning to read early enough so that they can then read to learn and so everything we do is we’re spending a lot of time playing catch up. Our system needs to absolutely ensure that all the kids can read. That should be the fundamental premise of the department of education. If we fail in that, shame on us.

How would you actually realize that shift? Schools have a lot of autonomy over the curriculum they choose — would you require that they choose a specific alternative?

Not locked in on that just yet. I’m just giving you a big picture thinking here. A lot of these things are going to be addressed in the coming weeks as we get there, and I’m able to do a full-on agency review. And we’ll figure out the best path forward. And these are things that the families have said to us, and not even just what I’m telling you I think is the problem.

Both you and the mayor-elect have indicated that you’re interested in replicating schools that are doing good work. But opening schools, especially as enrollment is declining in the city’s traditional public schools, could lead to closures. Is that something that you’re considering?

Yeah, there’ll be a combination of things. What the mayor-elect said was, we want to scale excellence. So that does not necessarily mean we’re going to continue to open up lots of new schools. We’ll open up more schools as appropriate and as the demographics in the population would indicate is appropriate.

But when we say, ‘scale excellence,’ let me tell you what I mean. If the Bedford Academy, as the mayor-elect referenced, is a great school and doing great work, there are going to be moments when we’re going to try to actually open up another Bedford. But more importantly, we’re going to try to find: What’s that formula that Bedford is using that is working? And how do you train other schools in how to do that?

Dan Weisberg is going to be your top deputy. During his time in the Bloomberg administration, he tried to make it easier to push weak teachers out of the classroom. Is that something that you’re planning to pursue?

Not necessarily. Listen, we want strong teachers in our system. I am more focused on trying to help our teachers to get better. That’s going to be the big focus.

Whenever you have teachers that are just not up to the job, even after the level of support that you should provide them happens, then, of course, we don’t want teachers in there that are just wholly ineffective. But I do believe that our teachers and our schools can get better. Far too often, our teachers are told to get better, and we don’t expose them to what excellence really looks like. That is going to be a framework that I work from, which is to show those other schools that are struggling — expose them to great teachers and great practices that are happening in other schools.

Now, listen, after you do that, and you try to coach them and everything else, if it still doesn’t work, then we’ve got to do what we have to do to ensure that our kids have great teachers.

Control over hiring and firing is obviously important to lots of school leaders and I’m wondering how much control you think principals should have over how they run their schools?

I was a principal for 11 years. I was the founding principal of two different schools in New York. And I believe deeply in a level of autonomy for principals and schools. But it’s what I call ‘earned autonomy.’ And that means we’ll have a set of metrics that are designed so that schools are clear about the kinds of things that we think are important for them to achieve. And if they’re able to achieve those, they’ll be given a bit more autonomy and flexibility to make decisions at the local level. That’s where I come from; that’s what I believe in.

What metrics would you use to hold schools accountable? What do you think are the right ways of thinking about that?

Don’t know just yet. I’ve got some thoughts that I don’t really want to share just yet.

To what extent do you think schools should be allowed to screen students for admission on the basis of test scores, grades and other academic qualifications?

I’m not a big believer in a lot of screens. Screening in certain situations is maybe a good thing — we got some schools where you’ve got to audition and demonstrate a level of talent. But I think screens have been used, in many ways, to be discriminatory and keep other kids out of the school. And that I do not support and so we’ll be looking at all those things and figuring out the best path forward.

One of the most consequential decisions on your plate is how to spend billions of dollars of one-time federal relief money. And there’s also going to be likely a permanent increase in state funding, which will not just be a one-time infusion. There are lots of ways you could spend that: You could make sure every school has access to air conditioning, you could reduce class sizes. Do you have a high-level sense of what you might want to prioritize?

Well, high level, there’s a lot of stuff to fix. Special education has been a real problem, and I hear it from everybody. Our ability to deliver on services and increase access for kids with special needs is something that is critically important. And we really want to make sure that we’re working on that. Early childhood education — really leaning in and providing the proper investments for for kids to get off to a great start. Hugely important.

A big thing that I can tell you that is really going to be a North Star for us is about what we see as bold futures career pathways to the world of work, increasing investments in career and technical education, you’ll hear us talk about that over and over and over again, that’s where we’re going.

The whole goal here is to prepare kids to be able to be college and workforce ready. A lot of times we talk about college readiness, but we don’t talk about workforce readiness for kids to have the skills to be able to come out and get good paying jobs as they graduate from high school, even if they decide to go to college. So we’ll be creating a whole body of work around that.

The DOE already has some of that going on, but not at the level that we’re talking about. We want to engage with every corporation around New York City who will either adopt schools [or] provide internships for kids — kids have got to see what the real world actually looks like that we say we’re preparing them for.

I’d also like to ask you a little bit about the pandemic. We’re currently seeing a significant uptick in COVID cases reported by New York City schools. I’m wondering if you’re considering any tweaks to the DOE’s health and safety rules, or even whether you think parents should have a remote option at this point?

Once I got named, [I] started to get some briefings — we have [a] COVID briefing today. We’re going to be taking direction from the public health officials in terms of what we can and can’t do.

But I would tell you that in listening to parents, it’s really important, I think, to provide some level of a remote option. And it says to parents that you believe in them, you’re listening, you’re paying attention. And it’s not every student. Of course, the most important thing is for kids to be back in school, we get that. But I think what’s also critically important is that we recognize that some parents are still fearful, legitimately, about the pandemic, about our ability to keep their kids safe. And so they’re taking a cautious approach. And others found that during the pandemic their child did very well with a remote option. And so I’m saying, why does it have to be one size that fits all? I think that we can, in fact, provide and should provide a remote option.

Now beyond the remote option, I believe that we should be using technology to enhance the educational experience, even if there were no pandemic. Who said that all the kids should have to come to school every single day and sit in rows for 45 minutes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.? That’s the way we’ve been doing it for the last hundred years. We’re saying let’s look at a new normal, let’s create some new opportunities to do things a little bit differently. And so we want to be open to all possibilities. And those best ideas come from teachers, parents, principals, and the kids themselves, who will give us the best ideas for the path forward.

So I don’t want to blow past something you just said, which I think a lot of current parents are going to be really interested in learning more about. Should they have an expectation that this school year there will be some kind of remote option for them?

Well, the timing on it, I couldn’t tell you. But I’m certainly open to that, yes.

Going forward, you expect there to be a remote option of some kind for families?

Of some kind? Yes.

In your mind, would that be a full-time arrangement? You could do remote school full- time if you had concerns about the pandemic — or is that sort of a more permanent thing?

I don’t want to be on record just yet on that, Alex.

I’ve got to get good intel on all of it — how it’s framed. Is there a cadre of teachers across the city who are just on full assignment as remote teachers? I don’t know just yet. There are various possibilities to do this. So many folks since I have been named have reached out to say we got great ideas and would love to meet with you. That’s what I want to do; I want to meet. I’m simply saying I am open to all of it and then the best answers will come in the coming days and weeks.

As you know, New York City is among the most segregated school systems in America. And in response to being asked about that, you said you’re not downplaying integration as an important issue, but that you’d be focused on making sure that there are high-quality schools available for everyone. Some integration advocates would say integration is a strategy for creating high-quality schools, so I’m wondering how you would respond to that line of argument.

Listen, I went to integrated schools. And so nobody has to convince me about the value of those integrated schools. We’re looking at districts like [Brooklyn’s] District 15, what they’ve been doing. We’re looking very closely at that — perhaps try to expand that.

But again, I think the integration of the school system, as a notion, is an important one. But it is something that also does take time and it is kind of oftentimes very politically fraught, right? What does that mean, when we’re trying to integrate schools? Generally, when you’re integrating schools we’re talking about Black and brown kids — how many of them have an opportunity to go into whiter districts. [Integration] of schools very rarely means white kids going into Black and brown districts, right? So that’s part of the political challenge that we face.

Now, that being said, I think it is important, but I do also recognize that what is critically important is creating more of these quality schools. The reason why so many kids, particularly Black and brown kids, are trying to even go to integrated schools is because those schools generally have the resources and activities and programs that everybody’s looking for. They’ve got great after-school programs, and music, and band, and art, great teachers. That’s what people are looking for.

But integrated schools where kids of varying backgrounds can be together — that is also how you build an educational experience, and I get it. So we’re gonna be looking to do everything we can in that regard. And again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but a lot more of the thinking around this is to come. I’m just getting here.

Michael Bloomberg is planning to spend millions of dollars in an effort to increase the number of charter schools in New York City, but there’s currently a cap on the number that can open that has been met. Do you plan on going to Albany to try to convince the legislature that there should be more charter schools in New York City?

I think the Mayor-elect Eric Adams will be the person that really speaks on that issue. And he and I will be aligned on that. That is to be determined. Eric has been supportive of charters. I have been supportive of charters. I think anything that provides opportunities for kids and families that is good ought to be continued and supported. We will see what happens with respect to the politics of lifting the charter cap. So no stated position on that just yet.

Are there any approaches from Eagle Academy schools that you would want to take systemwide?

The biggest thing about Eagle is that the Eagle Academy has done a great job around helping kids to ultimately believe in themselves. We’ve exposed them to a level of the teaching of history where they understand that they stand on the shoulders of people who fought, bled, died, sacrificed for this country. And that they ought to be proud of who they are as young people. You’d be shocked how many young people don’t know that, have no sense of pride about who they are. And it’s like they become new people when they get exposed to that kind of history.

Number two, bringing in mentors from around the community: lawyers, doctors, bankers, artists. That’s something that we think we can scale.You may not be able to bring in a one-on-one mentor for every single student for all 1.1 million kids. But every school has a group of kids that if you can help those kids, you would help lift the entire school. You can ask any principal and they’ll tell you, ‘I’ve got 10 kids right now, we struggle with them every day.’ Well, if you gave those kids mentors who are properly trained — we’ve seen it, it makes a huge difference. So that’s something you can scale all across the system.

How we have engaged parents: There are very few schools that engage parents at the level that Eagle Academy has. And I will tell you that it’ll be one of the pillars of our administration moving forward.

[Another is] the college work that we do. It’s not enough to talk to kids about college and careers, you’ve got to expose them so that they can see it for themselves. That’s how you create the ah-ha moments. Telling a young man or young woman to go to college is one thing. Taking them to visit colleges, having young people who go to college come and speak to them, who grew up in the same neighborhoods that they did — those are the things that get the kids’ attention, and makes them really believe that it’s possible for them.

Did school closures help Youngkin win in Virginia? Yes, a bit, analysis suggests

2021-12-08T21:00:00+00:00

Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin made slightly larger gains in areas of the state where schools took longer to fully reopen, according to a new analysis shared with Chalkbeat.

It’s a significant piece of evidence consistent with the theory that Youngkin leveraged parents’ concerns about school closures in his come-from-behind victory in November. The relative gains were small, less than Youngkin’s two-point margin of victory. Still, education is likely to be a potent issue in next year’s midterm elections, and the new analysis suggests that pandemic-era school disruptions, which in some places have continued, could have a real, if modest effect.

“With kids struggling with last year’s school closures, that’s something that parents are going to see every day,” said Michael Hartney, a Boston College political science professor who conducted the analysis. “That’s not going to go away.”

Compared to former President Donald Trump — who lost Virginia by 10 points in 2020 — Youngkin did better in every part of the state. To test whether these improvements were driven by school closures, Hartney asked a simple question: Did Youngkin make larger gains in parts of the state where schools were slow to offer full in-person instruction?

In many parts of the state, schools offered only virtual or hybrid instruction for much of last school year, and students in those areas saw particularly large declines in test scores.

Youngkin campaigned on the issue. “School closures have caused too many setbacks for Virginia’s children, and it’s shameful that politicians in Richmond continue to bow to special interests instead of doing what is best for children,” he said in March.

Controlling for the share of Trump voters and white voters in a given area, Hartney shows that Youngkin did better in places where schools were fully open for less than a month. The difference was not especially big: eight-tenths of a percentage point. Youngkin won the election by nearly two points, suggesting this shift was not decisive.

The hypothesis that school disruptions benefitted Youngkin quickly gained traction after the election last month. This appears to be the first analysis to rigorously examine this theory.

Hartney also tried to see whether Youngkin’s high-profile criticism of “critical race theory” — an academic concept that conservatives have used as a catch-all term for a greater focus on racism in schools — made a difference. He looked at whether Youngkin made stronger gains in districts that had a staff member dedicated to diversity or mentioned equity in their mission.

There was no evidence that Youngkin did better in those places, calling into question the idea that equity-fueled curriculum drove voting behavior.

The analysis has some key limits, though, which Hartney acknowledges.

Importantly, the study does not directly measure whether there was backlash to critical race theory in a specific place. It’s possible that other diversity efforts or curriculum decisions were flashpoints that motivated voters even in places without an equity officer.

The school closure analysis is also limited in some ways. For instance, places that closed schools may have taken other COVID precautions that caused a voter backlash.

Finally, Youngkin’s education message may have had a larger statewide effect that the study can’t pick up on. If some voters came to trust Democrats’ handling of education less because of school closures, whether or not they were personally affected, the analysis would significantly understate the impact of closures on the election.

“What if votes were shifting because of CRT or because of closures in the aggregate across the state as a whole because people hear about it?” said Hartney. “I can’t speak to that.”

There’s evidence that Youngkin’s message resonated. One post-election poll found that voters were 12 points more likely to trust Youngkin than his opponent Terry McAuliffe on issues related to schools. McAuliffe’s claim in a debate that parents should not determine what schools teach was widely panned and unpopular with voters.

“The problem was that it played into an existing narrative that Democrats didn’t listen to parents when they kept the schools closed past any point of reason,” according to a recent memo by a Democratic-aligned research firm.

Still, other analysts say that Virginia’s results might not have been about schools. McAullife’s decline in the polls also tracked increasing voter dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden. Virginia tends to swing against the party that won the most recent presidential election. Plus, parents’ views on school closures are more nuanced than is widely appreciated; nationally, many parents supported virtual instruction last school year.

Detroit’s first remote Friday had hiccups, but ‘flowed with focus’

2021-12-06T23:02:09+00:00

Latrese Taylor hastily scrambled Thursday evening to make sure her children would be set for the first of three remote Fridays, something she hardly thought about since learning was all remote last year.

“It was a bumpy start to our day,” Taylor told Chalkbeat Friday morning. The mother of three Detroit students had to ensure each of her sons was equipped with a working device to communicate with their teachers and classmates.

“It’s been a bit overwhelming because I couldn’t get the day off work.”

But Taylor said last year’s remote learning experience, in spite of its challenges, “prepared us to be ready for whatever the day may hold.”

“Though our day started with some challenges, we were more patient with overcoming obstacles,” she said.

“Last year, the setting was unfamiliar. .... Friday flowed with focus and a sense of comfort.”

The Detroit school district canceled in-person classes for three Fridays in December to address concerns about the need for a mental health break, rising COVID cases, and to have more time to clean buildings. Many parents praised the decision when it was announced, but the district was heavily criticized for the decision to go remote from people who said it would hurt students academically, and some who questioned whether any learning would happen.

Across Michigan, other school districts such as Southfield and Grand Rapids have canceled classes or moved to remote learning due to COVID outbreaks as well as staffing shortages.

Even with the experience of being virtual all last year, the Taylors faced difficulties going to online learning once a week.

Last year, Taylor didn’t have enough devices for her children. This year she had saved up money to purchase a desktop computer, so the family was better prepared to do the online work. But while her fifth grader was able to work on the family desktop computer, another found that his device was broken.

Taylor managed to help her youngest son log in and upload his class assignments on her cell phone before she went to work. As the day went on she continued to monitor their learning via her phone.

It wasn’t until the day before remote Friday that Taylor learned that she could get tech support at one of the district’s technology hubs. The information had been passed along to her sons’ emails ahead of time, but Taylor had not been checking their emails.

In another household, Damarion Treadwell sat at his family dining room table with his laptop in front of him and a notebook and pencil beside him. The Detroit Martin Luther King High School student looked forward to the first of three remote Fridays.

Damarion feels he’s adjusted to online learning. Compared with last year, most of his teachers have a better handle on how they want to set up and plan out their virtual classes. On Friday, both his science and history teacher provided live instruction he could follow along with at home.

“Education-wise, I still feel on track as far as getting work done. But high school-wise ... communication, being social with people ... I feel like that’s a thing that virtual school won’t give,” he said.

In a school year marked as a rebound for school districts battered by the stressors of virtual learning, the move to remote learning days indicated just how challenging it has been to keep students in person as COVID outbreaks and staff shortages have been ongoing.

Taylor was on board with the decision to move to virtual Fridays in light of her experience contracting COVID earlier this year. She spent a portion of the remote instruction year going in and out of the hospital as her oldest son, an adult, supervised the younger boys while they learned at home.

This school year alone, she added, one of her sons was forced to quarantine after coming into close contact with a classmate.

“I personally take the seriousness of all this to heart,” Taylor said.

Damarion isn’t fully convinced the Detroit school district needs to add more online learning days. The junior has already been vaccinated, he says, and hasn’t felt the same fears about staying in person for the school year as his father and aunt had when the district began to report school closures due to COVID outbreaks in late October.

“They were talking about how students should not go back to school until more people get the vaccine,” Damarion said. Vaccination rates across Detroit remain low: About 43% city residents ages 5 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, behind nearby county and statewide figures.

Instead, he suggested, the district should work to optimize classrooms so that students can maintain social distancing.

“It’s good how it is now until cases increase, then it needs to go back to virtual but if they don’t we can just keep it like this.”

Porter to step down as NYC school chancellor, clearing the way for Adams to make his pick

2021-12-01T12:38:16+00:00

Meisha Porter will step down as New York City schools chancellor when Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure comes to a close at the end of the year, she announced Wednesday morning.

Porter, who rose up through the ranks of city schools, stepped in to lead the nation’s largest school system in March following the sudden resignation of Richard Carranza, becoming the first Black woman in the position.

Her departure, which she announced on NY1, clears the way for Mayor-elect Eric Adams to select a new schools chief. He is expected to tap David Banks, a mentor to Porter and head of the Eagle Academy Foundation, which supports six all-boys public schools in New York and New Jersey. Adams has signaled that he will announce his pick for chancellor after he returns from an overseas trip on Dec. 8.

Porter, who has worked in the education department for more than two decades, will become the inaugural CEO of a new nonprofit called the Bronx Community Foundation next year. The organization describes itself as advocating for “social, economic, environmental and racial justice,” as well as access to “quality education,” in the Bronx — the borough where Porter worked most of her career.

“So many families in the Bronx, my family included — I raised my family in the Bronx — have depended on and relied on schools as our second home and our second community partnership, and I really look forward to working with schools to build out those partnerships,” Porter said on NY1.

In a statement, de Blasio described Porter as working “tirelessly and fearlessly” on behalf of students and highlighted their efforts to fully reopen city schools after the pandemic shuttered buildings.

“There is no doubt in my mind that she will bring the same determination and passion to her work serving Bronx families,” he said.

Some observers wondered if Porter would stay at the education department under Adams, though recent mayors have opted to appoint their own schools chancellor upon taking office. An education department spokesperson did not say whether Porter sought to keep her job or take another role under the Adams administration. In response to a similar question from NY1, Porter said: “I never looked for this job. And so I haven’t campaigned one day for this job. I’ve spent every single day in this seat, doing the job and what’s what I intend to do.”

Porter became chancellor during one of the most turbulent times in the school system’s history. The coronavirus pandemic had already upended in-person schooling for a year, with a majority of students learning remotely full-time — which not only exacerbated long-standing inequities in the education system, but also socially isolated many students. To help ease the transition back to school this year, Porter helped launch a universal summer school program that was widely embraced by many families despite a rocky start.

Chancellor Meisha Porter visits P.S. 15 in Red Hook on her first day as chancellor.

Porter was then charged with executing de Blasio’s goal of bringing the city’s roughly 1 million public school students back into buildings this school year. The administration largely achieved that goal, though nearly 2,800 classrooms — or about 4% of such spaces — have been temporarily closed so far this school year due to positive COVID cases. Even so, many educators report that both they and their students are happy to be back in the classroom, and just under 1% of students have tested positive for COVID since September, according to public data.

But the process was not without hiccups. There were legal battles surrounding the city’s vaccine mandate for educators — which Porter has said was one of the most challenging efforts of her tenure — followed by staffing shortages at some schools. There have also been busing delays, concerns about ventilation, and some parents opting to keep their children at home out of health and safety concerns — prompting some to be contacted by child protective services.

Her tenure also saw a historic infusion of federal and state money into New York City schools, resulting in billions of dollars in new investments. That includes providing every school with 100% of the funding they’re owed under the city’s Fair Student Funding formula and a $635 million “academic recovery” plan. Many advocates, however, were frustrated that more money wasn’t dedicated to other things, such as lowering class sizes, or that promised plans of extra services for students with disabilities were delayed.

New York City Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter interacts with an elementary student in on the first day of classes this school year.

There are still some loose ends on Porter’s plate. Before departing at the end of the month, de Blasio and Porter have signaled they will announce middle and high school admissions policies, which have been disrupted by the pandemic and have yet to be announced for fall 2022.

Porter, a Queens native, rose from a community coordinator and teacher to leadership roles in the Bronx, including 18 years as a principal, superintendent and now, chancellor. Her appointment as the chief of city schools came with a plethora of praise from educators, parent leaders and elected officials who said she had a reputation for building trust with parents and students.

Her 10-month stint as chancellor did not afford her the opportunity to advance a complete policy vision of her own. But she was still a public face of high-profile initiatives, including the city’s efforts to vaccinate public school students. And unlike Carranza, who often criticized the district’s status as among the country’s most racially segregated, drawing attention to the mayor’s resistance to tackling the issue systemically, Porter largely hewed to the mayor’s talking points.

She was known to be a lighthearted presence at public events at schools or vaccine clinics. She often danced — once doing the electric slide during an announcement about electric school buses — or was playful with students on visits.

“For the first time in a number of chancellors, principals and superintendents are gonna feel like they have a friend, someone to talk to and someone who understands them,” Richard Kahan, the founder of Urban Assembly, who gave Porter her first teaching job, said when she was first appointed as chancellor earlier this year.

Alex Zimmerman and Carrie Melago contributed.

They believed home was safer than school. Now some NYC parents are accused of educational neglect.

2021-11-19T11:00:00+00:00

There was no warning, just a knock on the door of Melissa Keaton’s Flatbush, Brooklyn, apartment.

She opened it to find a caseworker with the Administration for Children’s Services, or ACS, the New York City agency tasked with investigating suspected child neglect and abuse.

Still shaken by the sudden death of her father to COVID-19, Keaton hadn’t sent her 9-year-old daughter to school since classes started mid-September. It was now the end of October, and the caseworker explained to Keaton, a former PTA president at her daughter’s school, that someone had reported the family for educational neglect.

When New York City opened its schools this fall for in-person learning, with no option for virtual instruction, families across the five boroughs opted to keep their children home. They worried about the health of their children and vulnerable loved ones, and remained unconvinced it was safe to return to full buildings.

The city’s Department of Education promised at the beginning of the school year to be patient with families who remained scared of returning to in-person learning in what was once the U.S. epicenter of the health crisis.

“The only time ACS will intervene is if there is a clear intent to keep a child from being educated, period,” schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said at a press conference shortly before the new school year began. “We want to work with our families because we recognize what families have been through.”

Now, more than two months into the school year, some parents say they have been reported for neglect. The impact of child welfare investigations on already traumatized families can be severe: charges may stay on records for decades, future job prospects can be affected, and, most alarmingly, parents could be separated from children.

Education department staff made 207 reports of educational neglect through Oct. 31, according to ACS data. The numbers tripled in the last two weeks of October, compared to the total reported during the first month of school.

Still, the overall number of reports dropped from last year, when there were 346 cases in the same time period. But some parents and advocates say this year’s numbers are cause for concern since some of the parents getting wrapped up in the child welfare system are making efforts to educate their children as they hold out for a remote option.

Options for wary families, who are disproportionately families of color, are limited. Parents can apply for medically necessary instruction, which offers few teaching hours at home or virtually — but only for children who meet certain medical conditions. They can home-school, but that removes the student from their public school and puts the onus on families to educate their children at home, without help. In New York, homeschooling also involves completing and filing a plan and quarterly reports.

Viviana Echavarria’s children’s school told her to enroll them in the city’s home school program. The full-time working Bronx mom of four didn’t feel equipped to do that on her own.

Experts have stressed that children learn best in school. The American Academy of Pediatrics has warned about the dire consequences of keeping students home.

“Remote learning — which exacerbated existing educational inequities — was detrimental to the educational attainment of students of all ages and worsened the growing mental health crisis among children and adolescents,” the academy wrote.

City leaders have worked to reassure families that steps are being taken to make buildings safe. Staff must be vaccinated, masks are required for everyone, and officials said they’ve upgraded ventilation across the city’s 1,600 schools. Weekly on-campus COVID testing for unvaccinated students (the only group who is swabbed) has revealed a positivity rate of .39% over a seven-day average, according to city data through Nov. 17.

“Our priority is the safety of our students, and the first two months of this school year showed that our schools are the safest place for them to be during this pandemic,” said education department spokesperson Nathaniel Styer.

For Keaton, whose father died alone at a hospital soon after developing a cough in April 2020, that isn’t enough. After attending virtual town halls and talking to school and district leaders, she remained unconvinced that it was safe to send her daughter back to a school building.

“Families who are grieving and traumatized should not have to go through this,” she said.

‘Caught in the crosshairs’

It’s unclear how many families are refusing to send their children to school buildings this year. But attendance has lagged in some places, and last month the chancellor recorded a round of robocalls to families urging them to send their children to class.

Tajh Sutton is a mom in Brooklyn who, through the advocacy group PRESS, Parents for Responsive Equitable Safe Schools, has been providing resources and support to families boycotting classrooms because of health concerns.

The group has been advocating for a remote option as well as legislation that would require parents to be informed of their rights if they’re ever reported to ACS. Group members have also asked for an attendance code to track families who are staying home because of safety concerns.

After receiving roughly 20 calls from parents who recently received visits from ACS caseworkers, PRESS members created toolkits to help families understand their rights when it comes to child welfare and is partnering with the advocacy group JMacForFamilies and others on a Nov. 26 workshop on the topic.

The education department last week sent new guidance to principals with specific suggestions for how to engage with families who aren’t sending their children to school because of health concerns.

The guidance calls for offering families a virtual tour of the school to see the safety measures in place, making adjustments to respond to parents’ concerns, and offering application information for the city’s medically necessary instruction program. It also notes that schools should not report families for educational neglect if there is a pending application for medically necessary instruction or homeschooling.

“A report of suspected educational neglect is not a remedy for excessive absences, and is an option of last resort,” the guidance says.

Styer, the education department spokesman, said that educators “exhaust all options to support families in making sure every student attends school safely every day,” but also that, “our staff take their responsibility as mandated reporters for child welfare very seriously.”

“One of the striking things to me about placing teachers in the role of mandated reporters is just the extreme damage and lack of trust that creates in the relationship between parents and teachers,” said Anna Arons, an acting assistant professor at New York University.

Despite the detailed guidance, many schools appear to be responding in their own ways, according to Amy Leipziger, a senior staff attorney who deals with education issues for Queens Legal Services. The move to call ACS on families, who are “trying to do the best they can,” ends up feeling very “retaliatory” by their schools, she said.

“Now you’ve got parents — and more importantly, you’ve got kids — getting caught in the crosshairs,” she said.

A spokesperson for ACS, Nicholas Aguilar, said that the agency’s top priority is the safety and well-being of the city’s children. “Our work is focused on ensuring families have the services and supports that they need for their children to thrive, including educational services,” he said.

Educators are considered “mandated reporters,” which means they’re obligated to report suspected abuse or neglect. Prior to COVID, educators made about a quarter of ACS reports, said Anna Arons, an acting assistant professor at the New York University law school who has studied the city’s child welfare agency.

Arons pointed out research nationwide shows reports from educators are the least likely to be substantiated.

“One of the striking things to me about placing teachers in the role of mandated reporters is just the extreme damage and lack of trust that creates in the relationship between parents and teachers,” she said.

In terms of who is being reported, Black and Latino children tend to be overrepresented. While about 60% of the city’s children are Black and Latino, they are 90% of those involved in investigations or placed in foster care, Arons said.

In response to the harshness of how long ACS charges stay on one’s record, a new state rule will take effect in January reducing the number of years to eight. Until then, any ACS charges could remain on someone’s record until the child turns 28.

Viviana Echavarria with her 6-month old baby and 11-year-old son, Achilles Fernandez, who received his first dose of the COVID vaccine this week. Prior to his vaccination, she kept her three school-age children home because of safety concerns.

‘Concerned for our children’s safety’

After spending last year fully remote, Viviana Echavarria’s two teenagers were excited to return to Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy and even went back-to-school shopping.

But then the Bronx mom and her husband decided to keep their two high schoolers home until their 11-year-old could get vaccinated.

Still, Echavarria was stunned when her husband called late last month while she was at work, as a director of operations for a nursing home, letting her know that an ACS caseworker was at their door. He hasn’t returned to work yet to stay home with their three school-aged children and 6-month-old baby.

The caseworker was investigating allegations of educational neglect and checked the children for bruises on their bodies. Because the family includes an infant, the caseworker said she would be visiting weekly, Echavarria said.

Before the school year started, Echavarria had contacted the school to let them know her children would be home and asked for support. The principal told her that the only option was to sign up to home-school her children. The principal, in a Sept. 8 email, wrote that the education department was not providing curriculum, materials, or support.

The full-time working mom of four didn’t feel equipped to home-school and asked the city’s home-school office for help, but got no response. Though she’s been taking her children to the library on occasion, they’ve had no formal schooling yet this year.

“They’re putting you in a position where you have to choose between your kids’ health and their education,” Echavarria said. “If they think they’re helping the children, they’re making it worse. Now they’re adding fear.”

Her two older children’s geometry teachers had reached out to find out why they were missing class, and ended up giving them access to assignments in Google classroom. But when the children asked the other teachers if they could do the same, the principal clamped down, Echavarria said.

In a Sept. 24 email the principal said: “The children must come to school. We have programs and are expecting them.”

The principal declined to comment, referring questions to the education department, which didn’t address specific cases.

After getting her 11-year-old son vaccinated this week, Echavarria now plans to send all three children back to school on Thursday, hoping that will put an end to the ACS investigation. The agency, however, would not tell her whether that would close the case, she said.

“We feel like we can’t wait for the second dose. We feel like we don’t have a choice,” she said. “It still leaves us: Where do we go from here? We’re sending them to school, but we’re still being investigated.”

Viviana Echavarria had asked school officials for instructional support. Instead, she got a visit from a child welfare worker.

Home schooling wasn’t an option for Keaton either. She felt she could manage online learning after having done so for more than a year. She wasn’t prepared, however, to be her daughter’s teacher. Like Echavarria, Keaton also sent emails to school leaders asking them to provide virtual work for her daughter to complete.

“I was told no, there wasn’t any work. That was only for students who are quarantining, and there is no remote option,” she said.

With the help of the nonprofit organization Brooklyn Defenders, Keaton is now navigating the application for medically necessary home-based instruction while the ACS case looms. She has found support through a local group called Parents Supporting Parents NY. She has worried about whether the investigation will affect her ability to work in schools, as she has in the past, and wondered how long it would take to get her daughter back if they were ever separated.

“It’s rough to fathom the thought that I could end up in front of a judge who could remove my child because I want to maintain her safety and our health,” Keaton said. “I can provide a safe environment for her at home. There is no exposure.”

‘It’s policing’

Another member of PRESS, Paullette Healy has been keeping both of her children home because of health concerns while providing resources and support to families who are also boycotting schools because of health concerns. Healy knew that getting a visit from ACS was a real threat — she had been working on the toolkits for parents in that situation.

Still, the Brooklyn mom was shocked when she received a knock on her door from an ACS caseworker while in the middle of an online training session last week for her role on her local Community Education Council, which is essentially a school board for her district.

She was shaken by the visit, especially since both of her children’s schools unofficially supported her choice by allowing them access to work on Google classroom.

Healy refused to let the caseworker inside, nor did she provide the requested pictures of her children’s asthma medications, her husband’s medications, and their smoke alarms.

Healy had applied on Sept. 1 for medically necessary instruction for her children, citing asthma and anxiety as reasons to keep them home. She never heard back, and just last week learned from one of her children’s schools that school officials could not find her application.

“They’re putting you in a position where you have to choose between your kids’ health and their education,” Echavarria said. “If they think they’re helping the children, they’re making it worse. Now they’re adding fear.”

Some parents and legal advocates told Chalkbeat that applications for medically necessary instruction are taking about four weeks to process. Roughly 500 children are enrolled in medically necessary instruction, with about 750 having submitted applications this year so far, according to education department data as of Nov. 9.

Healy worries she’ll likely have to spend the next year working to get the ACS investigation off her record for background checks.

Even though Healy understands how to navigate the system, the visit has her family on edge.

“It’s harassment. It’s surveillance. It’s policing… It’s so stressful,” said Healy. “My child has been having trouble sleeping since the ACS visit: nightmares about being taken away from her home.”

Arons, the NYU researcher, said that during the shutdown and its aftermath in New York City, sharp drops in the number of reports made, cases heard, and families separated has not led to increased risk to children as measured in a variety of ways, from youth fatalities to emergency room usage. Her findings are detailed in a forth-coming paper.

She hopes the fallout from these neglect complaints can be an open conversation about the role of agencies like ACS moving forward.

“I think there’s much more appetite and willingness to engage around the idea of do we need this level of surveillance? And do we need teachers to be in this role,” she said.

Detroit parents share mixed feelings about upcoming switch to remote Fridays

2021-11-19T02:45:27+00:00

Detroit parents largely expressed support Thursday for the Detroit school district’s plan to return to remote instruction for three Fridays in December.

On social media and in conversation with Chalkbeat, the announcement generated debate among parents, with many supporting what they saw as the district’s efforts to keep buildings safe. Others pushed back, saying deep cleaning is ineffective and noting that closing schools on Fridays will hurt parents who need to work.

“It is clear to me that Michigan, and it appears the rest of the U.S., is entering a surge that will only worsen as more activities move indoors during the colder months,” said Kimberly Uhuru, a parent of a senior at Cass Technical High School.

Uhuru said she supports the district’s decision as a “reasonable adjustment to counteract” rising COVID cases. She also believes the district should mandate weekly COVID testing for students. Currently, COVID testing is optional.

Learning will move online Dec. 3, 10, and 17, before the holiday break begins Dec. 20. The district’s decision comes as Michigan is leading the nation in new COVID cases. Students and teachers are expected to show up online for remote learning on those days.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a statement to community members that he and the school board made the decision “after listening and reflecting on the concerns of school-based leaders, teachers, support staff, students, and families regarding the need for mental health relief, rising COVID cases, and time to more thoroughly clean schools.

The federal Centers for Disease Control recommends cleaning in facilities, for instance, “if a sick person or someone who tested positive for COVID-19 has been in your facility within the last 24 hours, you should clean and disinfect the spaces they occupied.” However, the CDC makes it clear that the risk of infection from touching surfaces is low.

“It’s not spread by hard surfaces, it’s spread by aerosolized contact, droplets, kids sneezing on each other,” said Caitlin Reynolds, whose 9-year-old son attends a district school.

But other parents are convinced that the deep cleaning the district is planning is necessary.

“If they’re not doing the right protocols, they need to be on top of that, and if that means having virtual (learning) some days of the week until they have the proper measures in place, then that’s what they should do,” said Sharon Dillard, a Martin Luther King High School parent.

“It’s not right for kids to come into unsafe environments.”

King students staged a walkout on the same day as the district announcement took place, with students and staff criticizing the district’s COVID protocols. The school had reported six new cases this week.

Stephanie Senford, another King parent, was cautious about how her twins would respond to a return to remote instruction but welcomed the district’s focus on addressing COVID protocols within the building. The Wednesday walkout, she added, left her concerned about whether schools across the district were regularly meeting safety standards.

Some parents and staff were encouraged about the remote instruction days, viewing them as a opportunity to give staff a much-needed break away from in-person work, while others were uncertain what effect one virtual day of classes a week would have on mitigating COVID cases without continual enforcement of other COVID protocols such as testing, social distancing, and mask wearing.

“The schools need a deep clean regardless of COVID spread,” said parent Amber Hunt.

“I wish the state would be more lenient on funding, as what teachers and staff truly need is mental health Fridays, not trying to quickly set up and juggle virtual classes once per week.”

Hunt added that she hoped the district’s decision was a “step in the right direction” and could encourage more parents and children to get vaccinated in order to remain in school rather than stay remote.

Dillard said she felt reassured about her daughter going in person because her entire family was vaccinated, but believed that the district may have to take stricter protocols such as suspending after-school programs or activities.

“Anytime you’re trying to avoid infections or viruses, deep cleaning is going to help in some ways, but, of course, this virus is pretty potent, so we need to be making sure other measures are in place: temperature checks, masking, sanitation stations.”

Other parents and family members were critical of the school district’s decision.

“Many homes may not be equipped with Wi-Fi, parents have to go to work, and student attendance will probably decrease and consider this a free day,” said special education advocate and district grandparent Sharon Kelso.

“School is in session until June 2022 … this is only a short-term solution.”

Margaret Daniel, a district grandparent, believed the responsibility to mitigate COVID is on families as much as it is on the district.

“COVID can still spread Monday through Thursday,” she said. “This virus is spreading because people are not doing what needs to be done in their families’ lives to help stop the spread.”

Detroit district moves to virtual learning three Fridays in December

2021-11-17T20:55:26+00:00

The Detroit school district is moving to remote instruction for three Fridays in December, a decision district officials attributed to concerns about mental health, COVID cases, and school cleanliness.

The move was announced Wednesday on the district’s website. It comes as the state is leading the nation in new COVID cases. Students and teachers are expected to show up online for remote learning on those days.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in that statement that he and the school board made the decision “after listening and reflecting on the concerns of school-based leaders, teachers, support staff, students, and families regarding the need for mental health relief, rising COVID cases, and time to more thoroughly clean schools.”

Learning will move online on Dec. 3, Dec. 10, and Dec. 17. The district’s holiday break begins Dec. 20.

Attendance on those days is vital, Vitti said. The district enrolls about 49,000 students.

“We must all work hard to ensure that we meet or exceed 75% district wide student attendance on these three days or districtwide online learning days will not be a viable option for us the rest of the school year.”

Districts lose a portion of their state aid if they don’t hit the 75% attendance target.

Meanwhile, classes are already moving online for students and staff at Renaissance High School. They’ll be remote until Nov. 29.

“In partnership with the Detroit Health Department we suspended in person learning because we had multiple outbreaks identified in multiple grade levels,” Vitti said in a statement Wednesday evening.

It’s the latest school to be affected. Multiple schools have had to close this school year because of COVID outbreaks. During the week of Nov. 5, the district reported 367 student and staff cases, with 857 students in quarantine.

The Detroit decision is similar to an earlier decision by Southfield Public Schools, which announced last month that it would go to remote learning on Fridays partially in response to staffing shortages.

The federal Centers for Disease Control has guidelines for when cleaning is necessary in facilities, for instance, recommending that “if a sick person or someone who tested positive for COVID-19 has been in your facility within the last 24 hours, you should clean and disinfect the spaces they occupied.” However, the federal agency makes it clear that the risk of infection from touching surfaces is low.

Machion Jackson, assistant superintendent of operations, told board members during a committee meeting Monday that the district is continuing to adhere to “regular” and “deep” cleaning practices that use federally recognized disinfectants instead of household products as well as using federal COVID money to provide overtime pay for custodial staff.

“Our custodians go through all the occupied classrooms, as well as offices, common areas throughout the day,” Jackson said.

“Deep cleaning is akin to your spring cleaning: when you open the windows of your home, when you dust those high and low surfaces, when you wash your curtains or dry-clean them.”

“Deep cleaning is traditionally completed during our summer months. We take more time to do that however because of the onset of COVID we have changed the practices and there are very highly concentrated areas we focus on in the event that there is a COVID case in the building.”

The district has no plans to shift to a hybrid schedule in which some learning takes place in person and some online.

“Long-term we will accelerate the conversation about a vaccine mandate for employees and students knowing that this is the best strategy to keep students safe and in schools,” Vitti said.

Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said the union negotiated with the district to provide virtual days once a week in December.

“With the increase in cases around the state, we have to start somewhere,” Martin said.

“We’ll try this for the month of December to see if it makes a difference and if not we’ll have to try something else.”

Across the district, he added, numerous schools have had issues with following COVID protocols that prompted teacher concerns. The goal, Martin says, is not to continue “opening and closing schools” every month.

During a school board meeting last week, members asked Vitti a number of questions about the district’s cleaning protocols, including how often schools are cleaned and whether there are enough disinfectant products available to individual teachers. Vitti responded that the school district is fully stocked with supplies and has increased its allotment of teacher stipend through federal COVID relief money.

During the public comment period of the meeting, the board heard concerns from teachers and parents about whether the district was adequately following COVID protocols.

Marnina Falk, a teacher in the district who addressed the board during the meeting, said she was doubly concerned about the district’s reporting of COVID cases.

“I think that the way we are informed about cases, and track quarantined students, needs to be improved,” Falk said. “It’s simply not sustainable. Right now it’s too much to keep up with and I’m becoming drained and it’s becoming dangerous.”

Martin said the teachers union is additionally investigating concerns of underreported COVID cases across district schools.

The announcement followed a mass walkout at Martin Luther King High School, in which students and staff stood outside the school building Wednesday to critique the school’s COVID protocols. The school had reported six new cases as of Wednesday.

King Principal Damian Perry, in a statement provided to Chalkbeat, said school leaders share the concerns of staff members and believes the December remote instruction is a step in the right direction.

“We will continue to follow the safety guidance of the district, participate in weekly testing, and report positive cases as required,” said Perry in the statement.

The district has an email address that parents, students and staff members can use to anonymously report any violation of COVID safety protocols inside their school building.

More than 100,000 NYC students are homeless, new report finds

2021-11-08T11:00:00+00:00

Nearly 1 in 10 New York City public school students were homeless last school year, a staggering rate that has barely budged for several years.

About 101,000 students lived in unstable, or temporary, housing in the 2020-2021 school year, according to an analysis of state data released Monday by Advocates for Children. That’s a larger number of children than the entire school district of Denver.

Homeless students face a host of barriers to education in any given year, especially in terms of attendance. In a year when the COVID pandemic continued to disrupt in-person schooling and place extraordinary challenges on families and students across the five boroughs, homeless students faced even more hardships.

Accessing classwork and instruction — which was difficult for many children last school year — was sometimes impossible for homeless students and their families. Family shelters did not have Wi-Fi and are only getting it now, following a lawsuit from Legal Aid. Even students equipped with city-issued internet-enabled iPads struggled to log on for classes because shelters had spotty connections to the cell service that those devices depend on.

Now, advocates are looking ahead to Mayor-elect Eric Adams in hopes that he’ll take aggressive steps to curb student homelessness and address their dire educational outcomes. Just 29% of homeless students passed their grades 3-8 reading exams, while just 27% passed math — both about 20 percentage points lower than their peers living in stable housing, according to 2019 data. Sixty-one percent of homeless students graduated on time in the school year before the pandemic, compared to 84% of their peers with stable housing.

“We are hopeful that given the incredibly poor outcomes we’re seeing, particularly for students in shelter, that Mayor-elect Adams’ administration will recognize the crisis for what it is,” said Jennifer Pringle, director of Project Learning In Temporary Housing at Advocates for Children.

Barriers to learning

More than 3,800 students had no shelter and lived in cars, parks or abandoned buildings, while another 200 students lived in hotels or motels, according to the Advocates for Children report. Another 28,000 lived in city shelters, while about 65,000 students lived “doubled-up” with friends or family. (Information was not available for roughly 3,900 students, the organization said.)

Though the rate was similar to prior years, the overall number of homeless students — 94% of them Black or Hispanic — appeared to have fallen by 9.5% year-over-year. That decrease could be due in part to a drop in student enrollment across the system, which lost more than 3% of its students last school year. Additionally, schools may have faced more challenges in identifying where students lived because the majority of children chose to learn remotely — an issue that advocates also flagged last year.

Homeless students were far less likely to show up for remote or in-person school last year. Between January and June 2021, attendance rates for students living in shelters were roughly 10 to 14 percentage points less than students in stable housing, according to city data analyzed by Advocates for Children.

The struggles have continued this year. The first couple weeks of this school year, the attendance rate was about 73% for those in temporary housing, rising to 78% more recently, compared to the citywide rate hovering around the “high 80s and low 90s,” according to what education department officials have shared with Advocates for Children.

For one mom last year, attendance wasn’t the issue. She struggled to simply enroll her son in preschool while moving between shelters and trying to find permanent housing.

Comfort Mensah, a 33-year-old mother in the Bronx, needed a program for her then-3-year-old son Gabriel that would provide support for his recent diagnosis of autism and developmental delays.

Mensah regularly called the education department to find a placement for Gabriel while also caring for her 2-year-old son. At the same time, she also was navigating her housing search on her phone since there were no computers at the shelter to use, and without the internet, she often went over the data limit on her mobile plan. Sometimes, she spent chunks of the roughly $400 she received from public assistance to buy him toys from Amazon that were meant to improve his motor skills.

“At this point, I was in tears every day because my son is not telling me what he needs, he’s always crying,” Mensah said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

About 30% of students in shelters have been identified to need special education services, compared to 21% of permanently housed students, according to data obtained by Advocates For Children.

Calls for more support in shelters

The de Blasio administration has made some investments in support for homeless students, including $12 million for more school-based staff and training and 100 “Bridging The Gap” social workers for schools with high numbers of homeless children. Nathaniel Styer, a spokesperson for the education department, said the department has “nearly doubled” the number of staffers who work with students in schools and shelters but said “there is always more work to do.”

Advocates For Children, along with about 40 other community organizations who work directly with families and students, are calling on the Adams administration to go much further.

They have asked Adams to tackle a slew of issues, including hiring 150 shelter-based coordinators who would help families like Mensah’s to navigate the education department and help with school enrollment, bus service, and special education services.

The organizations are also calling for several more changes, including improving school attendance, creating more coordination between housing agencies and the education department and moving more families in shelter closer to their home schools, as roughly 40% of families are in shelters outside of the borough of their child’s school.

After more than half a year waiting for the city to find her son an appropriate placement, Mensah eventually connected with Advocates For Children, which began helping her in February. By April, after Advocates contacted the education department, Gabriel was enrolled at Kennedy Children’s Center, a special education preschool in the Bronx, where he’s been since. The school serves children ages 3-5 who have been identified as having significant developmental delays.

Mensah has now found permanent housing at an apartment building in the Bronx that she said she loves. At school pickup last Friday, a teacher told Mensah that Gabriel has improved so much that they want to reevaluate certain parts of his individualized education program.

“He can talk now, he can hold a pencil, he can hold a crayon,” Mensah said.

How will fights about race and suburban schools change education politics?

2021-11-05T21:59:51+00:00

When it comes to national political issues, education is typically relegated to the kids’ table. Not anymore.

Since the Virginia governor’s election — where Republican Glenn Youngkin won with an education-focused message — schools have become a national political focus. Youngkin vowed to ban “critical race theory” and castigated the closure of school buildings due to COVID last year, among other issues.

“We had to find a place to play offense on education,” a Youngkin strategist said after the election.

What does all this mean for education politics and school policy going forward? Is this a new playbook for Republicans? The start of a new era focused more on the experiences of white students? Or just the extension of the growing polarization on education issues?

Chalkbeat asked a range of experts and advocates, and combed through polling data to find out what parents and voters have said, too. Here are a few takeaways.

Fights about schools — including how they teach about race — are likely to continue.

Youngkin’s electoral success campaigning on critical race theory and other school issues means we can expect to see others pick up the strategy leading up to next year’s midterm elections, when most states are holding elections for governor. In New Jersey, Republican Jack Ciattarelli came surprisingly close to an upset victory, and he also attacked critical race theory and COVID restrictions.

“It sends a message for other Republicans and in other states that CRT works,” said Michigan State University’s Sarah Reckhow, a political scientist who focuses on education.

It’s worth noting that the degree to which critical race theory or schools in general catapulted Youngkin to victory is ambiguous. Republican gains in Virginia were fairly uniform across the state.

“Two things happened. Youngkin rose in the polls in a way that corresponds with Virginians saying that education was a more important issue,” said David Houston, an education researcher at George Mason University in Virginia. “But at the same time, historically, Virginia tends to vote against the party in power.” Biden’s approval ratings were falling as Youngkin gained ground, he noted.

But at this point, the perception that education concerns translated into Republican success is enough to ensure these debates remain front and center for a while. Already, Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy has promised to unveil what he described as a parents’ bill of rights. “You have a right to know what’s being taught in school,” he said.

In an inversion of typical education politics, suburban schools and schools serving mostly white students may get more attention.

The focus on the curriculum choices in suburban schools, and schools serving mostly white families, is unusual in recent history of education politics.

National discussion among both Democrats and Republicans has typically focused on low-income students and students of color — think No Child Left Behind and many school choice programs. Some efforts have foundered when schools serving more white and affluent students felt targeted by them, fueling the testing opt-out movement and the backlash to Common Core standards, for example.

“This taught lots and lots of suburban parents that school reform wasn’t about them or their kids,” said Rick Hess, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

The suburbs are where Republicans lost the most ground in the 2020 election. They have also been where some of the biggest fights about schools have flared in recent months around COVID safety and curriculum, including in Virginia.

The attacks on critical race theory seem like an attempt to win back those predominantly white voters. One recent poll found that 42% of white voters believe that there is too much focus on “issues related to race and racism.” That compares to just 7% of Black voters, most of whom believe there is not enough focus on those issues. Hispanic and Asian American voters were somewhere in between.

Critical race theory refers to an academic concept positing that racism implicates all aspects of American society. But conservatives have turned it into a catch-all term for topics related to race and racism in schools — including separating students into affinity groups by race or reading books about school desegregation.

The size of the ‘parents’ coalition’ remains to be seen.

One theory for the electoral swing in both Virginia and New Jersey is what might be described as a coalition of pissed-off parents, including many who were previously happy with their local schools.

In this telling, some combination of factors — including COVID schooling disruptions — have galvanized parents as a political force. Notably, both Virginia and New Jersey are governed by Democrats and had longer than average school building closures.

“The dysfunction that is normally visited on low-income families of color who don’t have a lot options showed up in the tony ‘burbs of well-off white folks who thought they had great schools built into their mortgages,” said Derrell Bradford, the New Jersey-based president of the school reform group 50CAN.

“For the last two years, parents have witnessed the catastrophic failures of America’s education system, oftentimes from our own living rooms,” said Keri Rodrigues of the National Parents Union, a group that favors giving families more choice in education.

It’s certainly true that parents are concerned about the academic and social-emotional effects of COVID on their children. Constant disruptions to school have meant some have struggled to get back to work. Others are frustrated by masking requirements — and they’ve shown up at school board meetings to voice their perspectives. Enrollment in public schools has declined.

Still, whether that translates into political action remains unclear. In Virginia, polls were mixed on whether parents were especially likely to support Youngkin. This year, hotly contested school board elections in which issues around masking and critical race theory dominated had uneven outcomes.

More broadly, national polling shows that most parents think their local schools have done a pretty good job during the pandemic, suggesting that anecdotes of parents being horrified by what they saw in Zoom classrooms amount to more the exception than the rule. Two other polls from the middle of last school year found that a strong majority of parents were getting the type of instruction for their child that they wanted.

That’s not to write off the idea of parents as a new political force. Even a small number of highly motivated and frustrated voters can swing a close election. Plus, families may be feeling frustrated at their elected officials’ choices, even if they’re pleased with their local schools.

It’s possible that, as virtual school recedes further in time, it has become less of a potent political issue — but it’s also possible that it has grown in importance as politicians train their focus on it and long-term effects of the pandemic grow clearer.

Progressives face a decision on how to respond to critical race theory.

The message from Youngkin and other Republicans about the purported dangers of critical race theory has been quite clear. The messaging from McAuliffe and many Democrats has been a lot more muddled.

A seeming turning point in the campaign was when McAuliffe said during a debate, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” The comment proved unpopular, with one Virginia exit poll showing that more than 80% of voters believed that parents should have at least some say in what their child’s school teaches. McAuliffe also responded to the backlash to critical race theory by saying that it’s not really taught in schools, which has emerged as a common refrain nationwide.

“Whether CRT is the appropriate label to apply, I think, is a reasonable discussion to have. But schools have been examining what they teach about race,” said Reckhow. “I don’t see how it’s helpful to deny that and act like there’s nothing to see here.”

“The Democrats have a problem,” she added. “They do not have a proactive defense about what teaching about race and racism in schools should look like.”

Some progressives agree. “The response to that can’t be, let’s have an academic and theoretical debate about whether or not the words you’re saying are accurate,” said Khalilah Harris, managing director for K-12 education at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Instead, she argues, the left has to say, “Here’s what we want for children. This is what we stand for.”

Education is only continuing to polarize.

In recent history, education was an unusually bipartisan affair at the national level. There was a consensus about the need to improve schools for children from low-income families through new standards, tougher accountability, and expanded choice. Republican President George W. Bush decried the “soft bigotry of low expectations” — in a frank acknowledgement of systemic racism in a speech to the NAACP — and worked with liberal Sen. Ted Kennedy to pass No Child Left Behind. In 2011, President Obama joined Republican former Florida governor Jeb Bush to offer their shared perspective on education.

The alignment between parties has been unraveling in recent years, though, and newer issues like critical race theory, masking, and vaccine requirements have already largely divided along partisan lines. Red and blue state legislatures are approaching education issues in starkly different ways.

That’s not all that surprising. The recent discussions about racism highlight profound differences in the worldviews of progressives and conservatives that manifest in how each side wants to approach schooling.

“We’ve been seeing bipartisan ed reform dismantled over years now through the Trump administration,” said Reckhow. “CRT and what happened in Virginia is like kerosene on that wreckage of bipartisan education reform and now we’re burning the whole thing down.”

Biden’s ambitious plans to expand preschool and increase Title I, a funding stream for schools serving low-income students, are expected to get little if any Republican support.

Some advocates are holding out hope for slivers of agreement. After Tuesday’s election, the head of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Nina Rees sent out an email touting not only Youngkin’s victory but also Democrat Eric Adams’ win in the New York City mayoral election. Adams, unlike the current mayor, has been supportive of charter schools.

“Yesterday’s election is proof that education matters and supporting more choices for families is a winning policy,” Rees wrote. “Candidates from both political parties won their elections with an education-first message.”

Only 1 in 5 NYC students took last year’s state tests, making results almost moot

2021-10-28T17:14:24+00:00

About a fifth of New York City’s third through eighth graders took the state’s English and math exams last school year, when a majority of students learned remotely and the tests were deemed optional, according to data released Thursday by the state education department.

With only about 20% of students in the five boroughs sitting for the exams and 40% of students statewide, the results will be hard to interpret because testing conditions and participation rates were vastly different than normal, experts have said. In 2019, when the test was last given pre-pandemic, 96% of students took them in New York City, while more than 80% across the state typically take the exams, officials said.

Even state education officials warned against comparing the scores to previous school years.

“Our teachers, students and families grappled with various forms of instruction and often had to change how that instruction was delivered literally overnight because of quarantines and school closures,” New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty Rosa told reporters. “On top of that, many faced personal tragedies from the losses of a loved one to the losses of a job or feeling isolated or disconnected.”

Because they felt that the group of test takers did not fairly represent the state’s students, officials departed from the usual script and declined to share statewide scores. The state did, however, post results for districts and schools online. Rosa said test results on a local level “can help shape students’ individualized learning.” Officials said schools should use the test results as one of many tools, coupled with coursework, projects and local assessments, to understand how students are faring academically.

“These scores do not — and I stress, do not — tell the whole story as it relates to student performance,” Rosa said.

New York City parents had to sign their children up to take last spring’s state exams. Typically, parents must opt their children out of exams if they don’t want them taking them. The recent exams were only administered on campus, and children learning remotely were not required to come in for tests — in a year where more than 60% of New York City public school children were learning exclusively from home.

Of the roughly 90,000 third through eighth graders who sat for the English exams, nearly 64% were considered proficient. Of the roughly 85,500 students who took the math exams, a little more than half passed. The rates of passing scores were much higher than previous years, but as in previous years, disparities existed among different racial groups, with about 27% of Black students passing.

Chancellor Meisha Porter touted the city’s $635 million academic recovery plan, which includes assessments to understand what students have learned and where they’re falling behind, as the city’s “north star” for supporting students this school year.

“One thing is clear: our families each faced many different circumstances last school year and these results do not accurately reflect the diversity of New York City schools,” Porter said in a statement.

New York and other states last year had requested waivers for the federally mandated tests for a second year in a row because of the toll of the COVID pandemic. Beside families being directly affected by illness, student learning was disrupted because of technology access, mental health struggles, and other issues. Federal officials rejected those requests, saying the tests were needed to understand how students fared academically during the pandemic.

Still, there were big asterisks that would make such a task difficult: students who were learning remotely at the time were not required to come into buildings to take the exam, and New York officials declined to offer an online exam.

Drawing meaningful conclusions from last year’s exams is also complicated since different shares of students from various races and income levels may have sat for the exams. For example, though Asian students were most likely to choose remote learning in New York City, Asian students had higher rates of test participation than other students. Black students, who also had high rates of remote learners, sat out the test at higher rates than other children.

Overall, economically advantaged students were more likely to take the exams than their disadvantaged peers. Homeless students and children with disabilities had lower rates of participation. Fewer eighth graders took the test compared to other grades, with just 15% of eighth graders taking the English exam and just 8% for math.

Additionally, some of the test questions were recycled from previous years, and many educators said they had used those questions in test prep before the exam — so some students were already familiar with the answers.

New York education officials had said there was no time to field test new questions as they were awaiting a response from the federal government about whether they would be required to administer the standardized exams.

Officials delayed the release of results this year — which in recent years have been available by September — because they were taking extra time to analyze the data following an “unprecedented” testing year, a spokesperson previously told Chalkbeat.

Schools were not held accountable for the results or the number of students who took them, as they typically are. Test results contribute to whether a school is considered struggling or in need of extra support. And while parents can opt their children out, schools can be penalized if fewer than 95% of students take the exams.

Accountability requirements have been waived since the start of the pandemic, meaning a school deemed struggling during the 2018-2019 school year has remained that way since, and no new schools under this designation have been identified since.

State officials on Thursday touted a more “support- based” approach in helping schools designated as struggling, versus focusing solely on requirements to craft improvement plans. Officials said they have offered several optional services since the 2019-2020 school year, including coaching for educators, for the group of schools that need the most oversight from the state. Eighty-five percent of schools from that group opted for these services, officials said.

“What we are doing is shifting emphasis from what was more of a focus on compliance to one where we are looking to partner with our school districts to provide them levels of support that they need across a continuum,” said Jim Baldwin, senior deputy commissioner for education policy.

Last year’s test scores are the latest in a string of results that come with caveats when comparing past test results and looking for answers on whether student performance is improving.

No tests were given in the spring of 2020, when all school buildings were shuttered due to the COVID pandemic. State officials have discouraged comparing Thursday’s results to 2019 — when 47.4% of city test takers passed reading and 45.6% passed math. And while year-over-year comparisons could be drawn between 2018 and 2019 test results, prior to that the test was longer and had other differences, making it hard to get long-term data.

This spring’s tests — which are expected to go on as usual — may be adjusted in some way, as well, state officials said Thursday, once again, making it difficult to use them as a barometer for how schools are or aren’t improving over time.

Use the tool below to search for test scores and participation rates at any district or charter school. Schools that show a dash after “Proficient” means the state did not provide data for that school because fewer than five students took the exams.

Why didn’t N.J. schools go remote during Tuesday’s storm? Blame this state law.

2021-10-28T20:18:27+00:00

Amid forecasts of a fearsome nor’easter, some New Jersey districts closed schools on Tuesday while others decided to stay open and brave the storm. But, to many people’s surprise, most schools didn’t go remote.

The little-known reason: Under a state law passed last year, remote learning only qualifies as an official school day during emergency school closures that last more than three consecutive days. A single day of online classes would not count as one of the 180 required annual school days.

“At this time, it’s not an option for us to do a remote day on a weather emergency — snow day, storms, anything like that,” said Dr. Norma Fernandez, deputy superintendent of Jersey City Public Schools, which canceled classes Tuesday. “It will not count toward the 180 days.”

Gov. Phil Murphy ordered all schools to return to full in-person instruction this school year. But to many families and educators, Tuesday seemed like the right time to temporarily revert to online learning.

After all, Murphy had declared a state of emergency Monday evening in anticipation of the storm, which was forecasted to bring flash flooding and powerful winds. In a press release, his office advised residents to “stay off the roads.”

“Use your common sense,” Murphy said at a press briefing Tuesday morning. “And, if you can, stay home.”

But the restriction on remote learning, established by the state law passed in April 2020, all but ensured that school districts would not switch to virtual classes on Tuesday. Even if teachers and families had the necessary technology, the online school day would not count towards the 180-day requirement.

Some advocates say the law should be updated to allow remote learning during short-term emergencies.

“Today and other emergency weather situations, heat issues, etc. are examples of why we need legislation to offer virtual instruction as an option,” said Dr. Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, in an email. He added that his group is urging lawmakers to revise the law.

With remote learning off the table, districts had to decide Tuesday whether to cancel classes entirely or remain open despite the impending storm. Districts that decided to call off classes included Jersey City, Montclair, East Orange, and Paterson, where officials were persuaded by Murphy’s order for residents to remain at home if possible.

“His office basically said that, in a state of emergency, people need to stay off the roads,” said Paterson Public Schools spokesperson Paul Brubaker.

Newark, the state’s largest school district, decided to keep schools open. The choice upset some teachers, who complained about unsafe driving conditions due to heavy rainfall Tuesday morning.

“Why are these surrounding districts closed and Newark is open?” said a high school teacher, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation. “It really makes no sense to any of us who are here.”

Despite schools remaining open, many staffers and students did not show up, the teacher said. A different Newark teacher said Tuesday morning that only about 30 students showed up to her elementary school.

A district spokesperson did not respond to an email Tuesday asking about the decision to stay open and how many students were in attendance.

The state law limiting virtual instruction to longer-term closures irked some people who had to show up to school Tuesday. But there might be a silver lining: the return of snow days, which many feared would go extinct after the pandemic showed it was possible for students to attend class over Zoom.

If a single day of remote learning won’t count as an official school day, then schools might be more inclined to cancel classes during a snowstorm. Fernandez, the Jersey City schools official, said she would prefer to give students a snow day this winter instead of keeping them at home, glued to their computers.

“It’s good to go outside and play,” she said. “After a while, we all need those mental health days.”

All NYC public school families can get up to a $50 monthly internet credit — while the money lasts

2021-10-22T21:52:04+00:00

Leer en español.

All families with children in New York City public schools are eligible for discounted internet and devices thanks to a temporary federal program, yet only a fraction of eligible households appear to have signed up for the six-month-old program.

Education department officials are trying to spread the word about the program, through which families can receive up to a $50 monthly discount on broadband service and equipment. Households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 on a laptop, tablet or desktop computer.

The discount is part of the federal government’s $3.2 billion temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit Program, which launched in May as part of the response to COVID’s public health crisis. The city’s education department promoted the program in a recent issue of its family-facing blog.

The program will last “when the fund runs out of money” or six months after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declares an end to the pandemic — whichever happens first, according to the program’s website.

About $2.5 billion — or 78% of the original pot of money — is left, according to federal data.

Nearly one-fifth of New York City students lack home and mobile broadband services, and 40% of students have only one or the other, according to the De Blasio administration’s internet master plan released last year.

Any families with children in schools offering free meals through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision can sign up for this program — meaning it’s available to all students enrolled in New York City’s public schools, according to a spokesperson for the city’s education department.

Families must apply and find a broadband provider in their area participating in the program. Families can also check to see if their current providers are participating in the program. The broadband service then offers eligible families a discounted rate and is reimbursed by the federal government.

Families also qualify for several other reasons, including if they receive certain benefits, such as SNAP, or lost work last year and had a total household income in 2020 of $99,000 for single tax filers or $198,000 for joint filers.

Nearly 6.6 million households across the country have enrolled in the program, including more than 433,000 households across New York state, according to data compiled by the Federal Communications Commission as of Oct. 18. While that places New York fourth in terms of participants, behind Florida, Texas and California, it still appears to be far short of the number of families eligible for benefits. For example, as of July, 1.6 million households in New York were receiving SNAP benefits and thus eligible for this internet program. Federal officials did not have citywide program enrollment numbers data available.

While New York City’s public schools are open for full-time, in-person learning, students may still have to rely on virtual learning if they’re quarantined because they test positive for COVID or are considered a close contact of an infected person.

Officials spent $257 million on 511,000 internet-enabled iPads that were purchased from the 2019-20 school year through last school year, plus $4 million a month for data plans, according to an audit by Comptroller Scott Stringer.

In the spring, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he was seeking proposals from internet and telecommunications companies to create and manage new, open-access fiber cable networks, with the ultimate goal of expanding low-cost broadband service. He pledged to commit $157 million in capital dollars to the project targeting more than 30 high-need neighborhoods across all five boroughs that were hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic and also lack enough broadband infrastructure. Officials expected the first round of contracts to be issued by November.

First month of classes in Detroit sees virtual school challenges, demand for hourly employees continues

2021-09-29T23:07:23+00:00

Three weeks into the school year, Detroit Public Schools Community District officials still are fielding complaints from parents about its new virtual school.

Some of those concerns, about classes with no teachers and operational glitches, were aired during a virtual parent meeting Tuesday night with Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who told parents the district is working to address the problems.

Vitti also provided an update on enrollment, which he said continues to look strong, and on district efforts to address support staff shortages.

The meeting was part of a series Vitti and school board member Corletta Vaughn have been holding to hear directly from parents and to answer questions.

Here’s what parents and Vitti had to say on some key issues:

K-12 enrollment on the rise

Vitti said district enrollment is “about where it was in the spring and it is increasing.” The district’s spring enrollment was about 49,000, according to state records. While that’s still below the pre-pandemic level of nearly 51,000 students, it was above where the district began in fall 2020.

In addition, he said, about 98% of students are back for in-person learning. “I’m just excited to see the vast majority of our students back in school,” Vitti said.

The superintendent suggested that the enrollment numbers were improved in part due to the district’s ongoing home visit program, in which parents and district employees knock on doors to track down students who haven’t attended school.

Virtual school off to rocky start

A handful of parents came to the listening session with complaints about the district’s virtual school.

“I do think our children with virtual learning have been slighted,” said Aliya Moore, a parent who said that her child, who has an individualized education plan, or IEP, did not have a resource teacher to support them while completing assignments or taking tests.

Another parent noted that her daughter lacked a teacher in three of her classes this semester. In several instances, she said, the principal took attendance and then her daughter and her classmates would “sit there for 45 minutes or however long the class is and not do anything.”

“(My daughter) doesn’t want to fail or see her grade point average drop because she is an honor roll student,” the parent said.

“I don’t want to push her back to Benjamin Carson (High School of Science and Medicine), but I do want her to be able to get her education the same if possible. She’s in the 11th grade so these are crucial times these next two years.”

About 2,000 families are currently enrolled in the virtual school, Vitti said. Prior to the beginning of the school year, 2,500 students were enrolled. The superintendent added that he and other school officials would look into parent complaints.

“The development of the virtual school could have been smoother,” Vitti said.

“The challenge was we were having conversations about virtual school back in June and trying to get a sense of how many families were going to sign up for virtual school.”

Increased interest in virtual learning brought challenges that the school has had to address in the past several weeks, including hiring certified teachers from outside the district to fill in needed roles.

“I will commit that those positions will be filled, Vitti said. As of this week, he added, the virtual school has to hire two more teacher positions.

District makes progress on employee shortages

Vitti also noted progress in addressing the district’s security guard shortage.

Earlier this month, Vitti told school board members that a shortage of guards was forcing the district to increase hourly wages.

On Tuesday, he said the district has since boosted security guard pay to $16 an hour, from $12.61.

Vitti estimated that the district had received 200 applicants for 40 security guard positions since the district held its own career fair to attract recruits.

“We’re seeing a lot of interest in it so we should be fully staffed with security guards soon,” Vitti said. “I think a lot of people do want to work for the district. It’s an opportunity to work with our students.”

The shortage has been exacerbated in part by the pandemic, when the district needed fewer security guards because fewer students were in buildings. With students back in the classroom, the district is currently seeking hourly employees for guards and other positions such as bus drivers, paraeducators, and cafeteria workers.

“Hourly wages and just hourly employment through the city and throughout metro Detroit is challenged right now, it’s hard to hire people right now at an hourly wage,” Vitti said. The district is negotiating with unions to offer similar wage increases for other positions.

Editor’s note: This story was updated after an editing error resulted in the incorrect number for virtual school enrollment prior to the beginning of the school year.

Why one Illinois school district is betting on teacher improvement

2021-09-29T22:21:59+00:00

Mallory Lawler, a ninth year teacher in Bellwood School District 88, found teaching in a remote setting over the pandemic year challenging. She struggled to find new ways to educate third grade students online and to build relationships at a distance.

During that year and a half, she felt like a novice teacher all over again.

“You’re getting into the groove of learning your routines,” Lawler said, “learning how you want to put your classroom together, and how you’re going to build relationships with the kids.”

Bellwood, where Lawler teaches, is a small K-8 district in the western suburbs of Chicago that serves a majority of Black and Latino students in seven schools. About 99% of the district’s 2,300 students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. According to the state’s own scale that shows which districts get the most funding and which get the least, Bellwood is among the most underfunded districts in Illinois.

The struggles faced by Bellwood teachers during 18 months of virtual learning — it went remote in March 2020 and remained shuttered through the 2020-21 academic year — illustrate the impact of the pandemic on educators, especially those in under-resourced schools, and how those lessons can be carried into a new, challenging year.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought new hurdles for Illinois districts — and for teachers on the frontlines. It also brought the biggest windfall of federal emergency dollars for schools in American history, with Illinois receiving $7 billion. Districts have a lot of say in how they spend that funding, from technology to new curriculum materials to summer programs.

In Bellwood 88, which received about $3 million, officials decided to invest a small percentage — $210,000 — into professional development. But that small investment could pay off in helping the district retain teachers during a trying time and improve their instruction.

Victoria Hansen, Bellwood’s assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, said that one of the pandemic’s challenges was trying to meet the needs of her educators. Bellwood’s multigenerational teacher workforce ranges from teachers who just graduated from college to those who have been at the district for up to 40 years. Hansen wanted to provide all teachers the opportunity to learn about new technology and new teaching strategies.

“It became quite a challenge for us to sort of figure out how to personalize the professional needs of all of our staff,” said Hansen. “I said ‘we’ve got to do something different. I’ve got to equip teachers with a new set of skills to help them be able to navigate through this.’”

A different way to train teachers

Bellwood’s plan was to use federal funds earmarked for professional development for micro-credentials — a flexible way for teachers to take college courses and gain skills in their chosen subject area. Unlike one-size-fits-all professional development sessions, educators have the flexibility to choose courses and potentially earn credits toward an advanced degree, which can lead to a pay bump.

Hansen saw information about microcredits on the Illinois Principal Association’s website and thought that it was a fresh way to do professional development. Usually, the district invites a speaker to talk to teachers about a specific topic for a day. Hansen held these sessions for teachers through the pandemic and will continue to do so, but she saw micro-credentialing as a way to ensure that teachers were soaking up new knowledge.

“Teachers are doing this while on the job,” said Hansen. “They’re able to practice with the students and have a cohort where they can bounce ideas with others while on the job.”

When Hansen had the chance to offer her teachers courses through BloomBoard, a micro-credentialing provider, she jumped at the opportunity.

At Bellwood, microcredits were not required for teachers but the courses were strongly encouraged. Hansen worked with the district’s teachers union to give teachers a $500 stipend each time they completed a course. Teachers can choose from several courses such as blended learning, social-emotional learning, learning recovery, and equity in the classroom.

Christine Jackson — a 17th year general education teacher who teaches second grade in Bellwood — and Patti Baldino, a 16th year science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics teacher — both took a course called “Foundations of Blended Learning.” As districts throughout the state shifted between remote and in-person learning often, this course taught teachers how to use technology for remote learning and create learning plans whether students are in-person or at home.

The abrupt switch to remote learning left some veteran teachers, like Baldino, struggling to figure out new concepts. But she recognizes that some technology that was thrust into the classroom during the pandemic is now here to stay.

“I’m not all that computer savvy, and I really felt like a dinosaur when all this technology was being thrown at me,” said Baldino. “I felt like I really wanted to increase my skills in that area.”

For Jackson, the course reaffirmed what she already knew for her students to be successful.

”The things that were confirmed were things like surveying, parents, and students on strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, making sure students are a part of developing norms and rules,” said Jackson.

Baldino said that she would recommend micro-credentialing to other educators who want to stay in their classrooms and pick up a new skill without having to go back to college.

“I already have a master’s. I don’t want to go back to school for a doctorate, but I felt the need to grow,” Baldino said. “I wanted to learn new things and I want to stay on the cutting edge of where teaching is.”

Microcredits aren’t entirely new. According to Shannon Holston, chief of policy and programs at the National Center for Teacher Quality — a nonprofit advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. — they have been around for about seven years. Some states such as Tennessee are piloting programs across multiple districts.

Micro-credentialing has some positives for educators, Holston said.

“One positive that micro-credentials do offer is the ability to individualize professional development,” said Holston. “Rather than everybody getting the same professional development session, whether they’re good at that skill or not or need help in that skill or not.”

One of Holston’s concerns is that some teachers who are struggling in the classroom may not be taking advantage of micro-credentialing — and miss out on the targeted training they need to improve

Looking forward to the new school year

Bellwood opened its doors to students this year on Aug. 22. Lawler, Jackson, and Baldino expect some challenges ahead, but feel more prepared this year to take them on.

Lawler is currently taking a microcredit in social-emotional learning as she is concerned about the mental health of her third grade students who haven’t been inside of a classroom since first grade.

She has already started to use some of what she’s learned in the social-emotional learning course, such as introducing morning and afternoon meetings. At the beginning of the school day, Lawler does a feelings check-in with her students and plays a quick community building game. At the end of the school day, students reflect on the day, share one thing they enjoyed and one goal they have for the next day.

“I think our students are coming to us with a lot of trauma that they have experienced throughout this whole global pandemic,” said Lawler. “Whether they lost family members or just from being remote for a year. I hope to be a guiding light for them in dealing with that.”

Pike Township cancels in-person school due to bus driver absences

2021-09-27T23:43:19+00:00

Pike Township schools canceled in-person instruction Monday and Tuesday due to a lack of bus drivers, according to social media posts by the district on Monday. Instead, teachers conducted classes online.

The district announced via Twitter an unexpected virtual learning day early Monday morning, due to “circumstances beyond our control.”

Superintendent Flora Reichanadter later tweeted that a confluence of driver illness, planned medical leave, and the general shortage of bus drivers led to many routes without drivers.

A subsequent post from the district said Tuesday would be another virtual learning day. So far, the district has not announced when campuses would reopen for classes.

Reichanadter’s statement alluded to rumors of a bus driver strike, but said that the district had not learned of any planned labor protest.

Pike schools serve around 11,000 students in the northwestern portion of Marion County.

The district’s announcements directed staff to report to work as usual on Monday. On Tuesday, the district said teachers would teach live following their regular schedule, with students joining from home via the internet.

Reichanadter took pains in her tweet to explain the district’s treatment of its bus drivers last school year, including paying drivers who did not work during school shutdowns and providing extra compensation to those who did.

About this week’s virtual learning, Reichanadter wrote, “We understand this is a hardship for many families and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”

Report: Pandemic ‘wreaked havoc’ in Michigan’s lowest performing schools but didn’t deter teachers

2021-09-27T20:31:47+00:00

A turnaround program had been helping Michigan’s lowest performing schools improve but those gains stagnated during the pandemic, according to a new report from Michigan State University.

The pandemic “wreaked havoc” on these schools, known as partnership schools, even as educators and students made extraordinary efforts to continue teaching and learning, said researchers from the university’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative.

The EPIC study found:

On-time graduation rates, which had been increasing before the pandemic, decreased last year.
Drop-out rates increased, but the number of students transferring to other schools decreased.
Attendance lagged and students were less motivated to learn, but educators said they had a better rapport with those who showed up for virtual classes.
Parent engagement decreased.
More educators — especially novice and Black teachers — left the profession during the pandemic. But those who remained were more likely to stay rather than transfer to other schools or roles. They cited school leadership, culture, and climate as their reasons for wanting to stay.

The backslide doesn’t surprise researchers who were tasked with tracking the schools’ progress since 2017, when the Michigan Department of Education gave them more resources and a chance to improve rather than face closure.

Partnership schools had been making gains in elementary math and English before the pandemic, according to EPIC’s 2020 report.

The new report shows that partnership schools were more likely to offer remote-only instruction than higher achieving districts last year. Learning from home was especially challenging for these students because they also were more likely to experience economic instability, food insecurity, illness, and difficulty accessing health care. Researchers found they also lacked resources for at-home schooling such as internet access, desks, quiet workspace, parental help with school work, and transportation to get supplies.

“I think for the population we serve here that they do better in the building,” one charter school leader told researchers. “We struggle and we continue to struggle with the virtual model.”

Households were loud and chaotic, one teacher said.

“There were children running around screaming, dogs barking and television blasting. All this took the attention away from the lessons. At times, it was the opposite, with the parent sitting out of view of the camera whispering all of the answers,” the teacher said. “Either way, my students were not learning a thing.”

Still, teachers in partnership schools were undeterred. They were less likely to leave their jobs for other schools than colleagues in similar buildings not in the partnership program.

“What impressed me the most was these teachers didn’t just give up. They were really still trying, and they were reporting back that their school culture and climate were improving and their job satisfaction was improving,” said Katharine Strunk, director of the EPIC and a professor of education policy at Michigan State.

The state has identified 123 schools for the partnership program, including 50 in Detroit.

The report bolstered the state education department’s commitment to the program and its efforts to speed up learning by prioritizing the most crucial content over the next school year. The department expects to add more schools to the partnership program next fall.

“Many of the challenges faced by partnership districts are large systemic issues that span beyond the education realm, so any solutions require partners, time, and honest conversations about deep-seated changes that are necessary,” the department said in its written response to the report.

EPIC concluded that partnership schools would benefit from more funding, better recruiting and retention of faculty — especially Black teachers — and more robust socioemotional support.

The report is EPIC’s third on the effectiveness of the partnership program. Researchers said it was hard to isolate the effects of the program from the effects of the pandemic, which were more profound in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods that partnership schools tend to serve.

Researchers considered dropout rates, teacher mobility, district revenue data, educator surveys, and interviews. They used teacher perceptions of student learning rather than test results because the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, known as M-STEP, was not administered in 2019. Teachers estimated that 15% to 16% of students began the school year on track in language arts, math, science and social studies, and even fewer — 11% to 13% — finished on track.

They found the pandemic exacerbated already difficult challenges children in these schools faced.

“For many of our students, making it through the day is all they can do,” one teacher told researchers. “My high school students have shouldered enormous burdens this year. They are breadwinners, babysitters, tutors, cooks, and whatever else is needed in the household.”

Read the full report here.

Despite COVID, most Tennessee parents are upbeat about school this year, poll says

2021-09-21T22:57:21+00:00

A month into the new academic year, three-fourths of Tennessee parents said school was going well for their child and 69% said their student felt safe attending classes in person, even as many districts closed temporarily under the strain of COVID’s highly contagious delta variant.

Poll results released Tuesday also show that nearly half of the state’s parents worry their students have fallen behind academically during the pandemic, with those concerns even more widespread among suburban parents and parents of high schoolers.

The poll — commissioned by the State Collaborative on Reforming Education, also known as SCORE — offered some surprises on parents’ perceptions of the beginning of the third straight school year affected by the pandemic. The survey was conducted Sept. 1-5 with a representative sampling of 500 registered voters and 300 public school parents across the state, where most students started back to school in early August.

About 77% of parents surveyed were positive about how the 2021-22 school year was going for their child.

At the time, at least 18 of Tennessee’s 147 school systems had shut down for up to a week to try to tame the virus as sickness or quarantine sidelined too many teachers to adequately staff classrooms. And a third of all Tennessee COVID cases were among children up to age 18. In addition, Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn had just begun granting seven-day waivers to let some schools shift temporarily to virtual learning under a new COVID response plan.

Since then, Tennessee has reported more new coronavirus cases than any other state, relative to its population — an average of 109 for every 100,000 people, according to a New York Times database.

Data released Monday by the state health department shows the number of deaths for people under age 20 has doubled to 20 since the school year began.

And at least 14 public school employees who contracted COVID have died this academic year, based on a report about confirmed deaths by Tennessee Lookout, an online news organization. The report notes that it is unknown whether any employee was exposed to COVID at school or outside of school.

SCORE officials believe parents feel good about more in-person learning happening than last school year, when districts had blanket authority to shift to virtual learning to respond to local virus surges. A new state rule requires schools to provide in-person instruction and tap into stockpiled days if they have to close. Even with Tennessee’s COVID numbers, Gov. Bill Lee’s administration hasn’t backed off of that position.

“The positive feelings parents expressed about the start of this school year are a testament to the hard but essential work the state’s teachers and school and district leaders have done to support in-person instruction in very difficult circumstances,” SCORE President and CEO David Mansouri said in a statement.

Teresa Wasson, a spokesperson for SCORE, added that polling from the last two years shows two-thirds of Tennessee parents think remote learning is worse for their students than in-person learning.

Beth Brown, president of the Tennessee Education Association, agreed that in-person learning is best and said it’s great parents are feeling positive about the school year. But she also cited a disconnect between what the survey shows and what she’s hearing from educators on the ground who continue to respond to disruptions.

“People need to understand that the pandemic is taking a toll on educators in a state where there’s already a teacher shortage,” Brown told Chalkbeat. “Teachers are exhausted, burned out, and struggling mentally and emotionally.”

This year’s poll had similar results to last year over parent concerns about pandemic-related learning lags. But this is the first pandemic year that Tennessee has had the benefit of statewide test scores, which were released a month before the latest poll was conducted. In 2020, testing was canceled nationwide due to the virus.

Tennessee’s scores showed an overall decrease in proficiency of 5 percentage points since 2019 under the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, also known as TCAP. The scores declined across all subjects and grades, with the sharpest drops among students who have trailed their peers historically and learned remotely the longest.

SCORE’s poll delved into non-pandemic education issues too.

Most people surveyed, including 71% of parents and 65% of voters, believe that Tennessee public schools don’t receive enough funding. And even greater percentages of those surveyed said they would support the state increasing funding for K-12 education.

The poll also showed strong statewide support for continuing annual state testing, which has been used in Tennessee since 1988, to know if students are meeting education standards in reading, writing and math.

Based in Nashville, SCORE is a research and advocacy group founded in 2009 by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

The group’s poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and had a margin of error of just over 4% for the registered voter sample and over 5% for the public school parents.

COVID concerns kept these students home. Now they are no longer enrolled.

2021-09-10T01:53:14+00:00

On the first day of school in Chicago, Cortney Ritsema emailed her campus in the city’s Rogers Park neighborhood to say her three children would not come to school because of concerns about the delta variant and the district’s safety measures.

At first, New Field Elementary marked Ristema’s third grader and two kindergarteners as excused absences. She logged on to review the kindergarteners’ curriculum and checked out books the third grader’s classroom was reading from the library.

But later in the week, Ristema received a robocall notifying her that her children were now logging unexcused absences. Then she lost access to their school accounts.

The principal eventually called to explain: After missing most of the first week, her children were no longer enrolled at the school.

Ristema is part of a group of Chicago parents who organized under the social media hashtag #CPSSickOut to sit out the district’s return to full-time in-person instruction — a bid to force the district’s hand to offer virtual access to instruction. After they did not show up for several days, some students were dropped from campus rolls.

The district said it is merely following a longstanding process. Any students who do not come at the start of the school year are marked “Did Not Arrive” and eventually considered “inactive.” A district spokeswoman said there are good reasons for this approach: Students don’t rack up unexcused absences — potentially sparing families a legal standoff over chronic truancy — while the school can better plan and make scheduling changes.

But in the COVID era, that standard practice comes with a twist: While “Did Not Arrive” students are often dropped because schools can’t track down their families, these parents insist that they want to remain enrolled.

Their situation captures a key tension for Chicago school officials: They are intensely focused on re-engaging students and families to forestall a major enrollment dip, a factor in state funding. But, citing state guidelines limiting remote learning, they also want children in the classroom, arguing a wholesale return is crucial to begin addressing the pandemic’s academic and mental health fallout.

Districts across the country are grappling with the conundrum of how to deal with families who refuse to return to in-person learning. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed this week that the district will stay in touch and continue engaging families who balk at attending in person later this month.

Chicago has stressed that “inactive” students who return to their campuses will be re-enrolled immediately, without any additional paperwork for the family, though those in selective enrollment and magnet programs that require families to navigate application processes and lotteries could lose their seats.

“Did Not Arrive”

#CPSSickOut organizers such as Ritsema said about 300 parents are participating this fall and keeping their children home — a tiny fraction in the 340,000-student district. They say they are aware of at least a dozen who were unenrolled, generally after telling their schools they were keeping students home because of health concerns. Other participating parents informed schools they were quarantining because of travel or a family illness and were marked as excused absences.

They say they have heard from more families this week whose students returned in person, but who would like virtual learning more broadly available to quarantining students, such as those who followed a last-minute district directive to keep unvaccinated children home if families traveled out of state during the Labor Day holiday.

Earlier this week, the state’s school board gave added leeway to districts to offer remote access to quarantining students — a move some parents hope will bolster their case for more remote options.

On Wednesday, the district reported that since the start of the school year, there have been 161 confirmed COVID cases among employees and students, though educators and parents have said some cases of which they were formally notified are not yet reflected in the online tracker. In total, about 2,940 close contacts were flagged.

The week before classes started, Kate O’Rourke informed her seventh grade daughter’s neighborhood elementary school on the city’s Southwest Side that the girl would not attend in person. O’Rourke had resigned as an early childhood special education teacher in the district last spring over concerns about how it had handled reopening schools for hybrid learning.

Her daughter is vaccinated, but with several immunocompromised family members, O’Rourke says she worried the girl could bring COVID home from school. She is also critical of the district’s decision to do away with some safety measures from last year such as stricter social distancing and a daily health screener, and to exclude vaccinated students and staff from quarantine after a school-based exposure.

The school warned her that her daughter would be unenrolled. And that’s what happened within the first few days of the school year.

O’Rourke told a clerk that week that she wanted to keep her daughter on the rolls, but was told the only way to do that would be to send her to school.

“I want her to count as a student,” she said. “I’m crushed to think she’s been erased from the system.”

In the 1990s, the district embraced a more expeditious approach to dropping no-show students from school rolls at the start of the school year, said a former district official familiar with enrollment practices, who requested anonymity. That was in part to crack down on the practice of waiting to unenroll students who had left until after the 20th day of the school year, when enrollment helps determine campus budgets. Now, students would be marked “Did Not Arrive” on the first day of school, and then after an attempt to reach their families, cleared from the rolls.

But the former official said, amid the pandemic, “Old concepts are being applied to new realities. These parents and students are saying, ‘I did not arrive, but I am here to tell you, Principal Jones, that we’re still in the school.”

“I would call these students pushouts, because that’s what principals are doing, which we used to try to discourage,” he added.

The district has been firm on limiting virtual access to classrooms to unvaccinated students who were directed by the district or a health authority to quarantine, though the recent state board change calls for extending virtual learning to vaccinated students in quarantine as well. (A new Virtual Academy is open only to students with certain serious medical conditions.) Meanwhile, educators have spoken out about the challenges of teaching in-person and remote students simultaneously, which they say can often feel like shortchanging one or both groups of students.

Brenna O’Brien’s family had a different experience from Ritsema and O’Rourke, illustrating that schools are still grappling with how to handle these cases. O’Brien, another member of the #CPSSickOut group, told her school ahead of the first day that her second- and fourth-graders would quarantine because of a suspected COVID exposure. The family plans to keep the children home until they are able to get vaccinated or until COVID cases in the city decrease substantially.

The school, Coonley Elementary on the city’s North Side, allowed O’Brien’s children to log on to the classroom virtually on Day 1 and meet their peers and teachers. Later that day, one student virtually joined a read-along with the class.

She says her students have been allowed to log in at least briefly every morning, check in, and get school assignments they then do independently after logging off: “That connection is such a big boost for their social and emotional wellbeing.”

Limited recourse

Some of these families acknowledge they are in a privileged position: With a stay-at-home parent or one who can work from home, they are able to support learning away from school.

O’Rourke, who can work from home, has started designing a homeschool curriculum for her daughter. But they argue they are also advocating for other parents who are anxiously sending their children to school but still hoping for a virtual option. O’Rourke says offering more remote access could also help preserve in-person learning for the many children who need it by allowing for more social distancing.

Ritsema, a stay-at-home mom, had felt optimistic as COVID cases plunged in early summer that her children would return to in-person learning and she would rejoin the workforce in the fall. But after the delta variant emerged, she felt uncomfortable with district changes such as dropping daily temperature checks and relaxing social distancing expectations. The idea of her children, one of whom has asthma, eating lunch indoors with other unvaccinated students filled her with anxiety.

In a letter to the school, she asked that her daughter’s absences be excused because of what the district’s truancy policy describes as “circumstances which cause reasonable concern to the parent or legal guardian for the safety or health of the student.”

That argument did not fly. Ritsema says she was also told that her position as a parent representative on the local school council is also in jeopardy.

On Twitter, where Ritsema posted about her experience, two aldermen and the Chicago Teachers Union, which accused the district of “retaliation” against her, chimed in in support.

Her principal offered to share homeschooling resources, but Ritsema says she plans to keep fighting the decision to unenroll her children and demanding that teachers give them school work and access to the curriculum — though she is not sure she has any recourse.

For now, she works on reading, writing and multiplication with her third-grader daily, she said: “I’m really winging it.”

Illinois gives school districts leeway for remote instruction amid COVID outbreaks

2021-09-08T22:05:02+00:00

Illinois districts will be required to offer remote learning to all students who are quarantined after being potentially exposed to COVID-19 in school, under a resolution passed Tuesday by the state board of education.

In an earlier resolution issued by the board, remote instruction was limited to students who are unvaccinated or ineligible for a COVID vaccine if they were under quarantine orders from a local public health department or the state department of health.

The new public health guidelines also give school districts the ability to close school buildings under an “adaptive pause” if there is an outbreak at schools. The updated resolution comes amid the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant and a spike in COVID case numbers and hospitalizations throughout the state.

The number of schools on the state’s campus outbreak list grew to 81 as of Sept. 3; another 1,007 schools reported potential exposures. More districts have also been forced to contend with sizable numbers of students in quarantine.

In Springfield school district 186, which serves more than 13,000 students, more than 1,400 students were in quarantine as of Wednesday, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard. The district is considering asking the state board of education and the state’s health department to mandate student vaccinations.

At the special state board meeting Tuesday, Illinois schools chief Carmen Ayala tried to walk the line between giving districts more flexibility if case counts rise and ensuring students return to classrooms after 18 months of hybrid or virtual learning.

“The door to remote learning needs to be narrow,” she said. “Our goal is to further ensure continuity of learning for all students who are excluded from school, as well as support their safe and speedy return to in-person learning.”

Many Illinois school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, had interpreted the original resolution to mean that students with medical conditions could be excluded from in-person learning and offered medical exemptions to a small number of students.

On Tuesday, some parent organizers in Chicago and the city’s teachers union began circulating the state board’s change on social media and arguing that Chicago Public Schools should broaden access to its “Virtual Academy,” which has been strictly limited for children with medical conditions and has so far enrolled fewer than 1,000 students.

Mark Klaisner, president of Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, said school districts are trying to figure out how to keep quarantined students connected to classrooms. Unlike last year when school districts were able to keep school buildings closed or bring in a certain number of students in a hybrid learning model, students who are under quarantine this year may be out of the classroom for up to 14 days.

“Districts are trying to mobilize on a system where they can stream what’s happening in the classroom so they can live and remote simultaneously,” said Klaisner. “I think a few people are calling that ‘room and zoom’ where some kids are home and some are in classrooms.”

Klaisner’s concern is ensuring that districts have access to resources to keep students connected because the pandemic has highlighted inequities throughout the state.

“One district, in particular I remember, didn’t have Xerox machines to send students packets,” said Klasiner. “But I can look out my window and point to a school district where every kid has their own individual learning device.”

As of July 30, 2021, 53.2% of children age 12 to 17 in Illinois were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of last Friday, 18 Illinois school districts were on probation for failing to comply with the state’s school mask mandate.

Cassie Walker Burke contributed to this report.

Tennessee: We want to hear about your quarantine experiences this school year

2021-09-07T17:38:56+00:00

Since students across the state returned to classrooms nearly a month ago, Tennessee has drawn nationwide attention for skyrocketing COVID cases among children.

In turn, quarantines, too, have skyrocketed, impacting students, parents, and caretakers for weeks at a time.

Chalkbeat Tennessee wants to know about the quarantine experiences of families, teachers, and school staff from Memphis and across the state. Tell us your story in the form below, or go here if you are on a mobile device.

Her district says in-person learning is best. Her parents want her virtual. Right now, this Denver 7-year-old isn’t in school at all.

2021-09-03T21:36:11+00:00

School started in Denver two weeks ago, but 7-year-old Pearl missed the first day. And the second day. And every day since. While her peers returned to their classrooms, Pearl has been at home, waiting.

Denver Public Schools is offering both in-person and virtual school options as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into a third school year. But Pearl’s family feels stuck between choosing the best educational setting for their daughter, who has Down syndrome, and protecting her health.

The pandemic has been difficult for all students, but students with disabilities have been especially impacted. And while most students are returning to somewhat normal routines this fall, Pearl’s situation shows not all students are able to do so.

Pearl also has asthma and other health conditions from surviving meningitis as a newborn, her mother said. A common cold has landed Pearl in the hospital, and her parents fear she’d suffer complications if she contracted COVID-19, so they want to keep her at home. But when they tried to enroll their daughter in the district’s new virtual elementary school, her application was denied.

District staff told her mother they couldn’t meet Pearl’s educational needs online. That has left the 7-year-old in limbo, and her parents frustrated and occasionally in tears.

“It is so hurtful,” said Pearl’s mother, Heidi Bricker. “Little has hurt as much as this has hurt.

“When you have a child with Down syndrome, you have one choice, and that is to advocate for them,” she said. “In this case, for the first time in her seven years, I feel like I failed.”

Pearl would be in first grade this year.

Miranda Kogon, associate chief of student equity and opportunity for Denver Public Schools, could not comment on Pearl’s case. But she said the district “is committed to working with each family in partnership to make sure we are meeting the unique needs of every student.”

The district’s two virtual schools — one for middle and high schoolers and a brand new one for elementary students — are accepting students with disabilities. More than 18% of students enrolled in the virtual secondary school have either an individualized education program, known as an IEP, or a 504 plan detailing the accommodations and services they’re legally entitled to receive because of their disability, Kogon said. More than 14% of students enrolled in the virtual elementary school have such plans, she said, which aligns with the district average.

There are no hard and fast rules for which students with disabilities can enroll in the virtual schools this year, Kogon said. Rather, the determination is made on a case-by-case basis by the special education team at the student’s brick-and-mortar school.

Kogon said there’s a high bar for allowing students with IEPs to be served online. School districts are required by federal law to provide students with disabilities a free appropriate public education. Though that requirement was relaxed somewhat when school buildings were closed, Kogon said that “is no longer the case because our schools are open for in-person learning and we have a strong overlay of health strategies in place for keeping kids and staff safe.”

If a special education team decides a student can’t be served virtually, and the family doesn’t want to send the child to school in person, Kogon said the family can request what’s known as homebound services, where a teacher comes to the home.

But homebound services are not a given; the district has to conduct a separate evaluation to see if a student qualifies. And while Kogon said the frequency that a homebound teacher comes to a student’s home varies, advocates say it’s rarely five days a week.

The last email Pearl’s parents got from the district a few days ago recommends Pearl be evaluated for homebound services. But Bricker doesn’t want that. Aside from her concerns about the infrequency of visits from a teacher, she said the whole idea behind keeping Pearl learning at home is to isolate her from COVID-19 exposure.

“If I was going to let someone in my home, I’d send my kid to school,” Bricker said.

Instead, she wants to continue what she and Pearl did for the past year and a half. Pearl would join her kindergarten class virtually and Bricker would sit beside her, acting as her one-on-one tutor. In real time, Bricker would modify what the teacher was saying to make it accessible for Pearl, who prefers hands-on activities to sitting at her desk.

But Bricker isn’t a teacher. She doesn’t know what to teach her now first grader. What she wants this year, she said, is access to the first grade curriculum so she can keep modifying the lessons at home for Pearl. Then, when Pearl is able to be vaccinated, she can go to school in person.

“I don’t doubt she will get COVID, but I want to prevent that from happening until she’s vaccinated,” Bricker said. “It’s within our rights as parents to do that. It doesn’t mean we should sacrifice her education to secure her safety, or be given an ultimatum.”

That’s what Bricker feels she’s been given. In meetings, she said district staff have emphasized that they can meet Pearl’s needs in person and that the schools are relatively safe. To Bricker, it feels as though her family has to choose between several bad choices — a situation they would not be facing if Pearl didn’t have a disability.

“I have a sweet red-headed 7-year-old girl here who has plenty to offer and great potential,” she said, “and she’s being declined an education.”

As virtual options split off from traditional school, interest dips

2021-09-02T22:40:05+00:00

In San Diego, like in many school districts, virtual learning looks different this year.

Earlier in the pandemic, fully virtual students were paired with teachers at their home schools who guided them through a full day of classes — from math to gym — often alongside their pre-pandemic classmates.

But this year, after the state prohibited that kind of remote learning, San Diego launched a standalone virtual academy with its own virtual teachers. Students get some live instruction and teacher check-ins, then spend the rest of the time doing work on their own.

Another change? The level of interest. Last year, 44% of students ended the year online. But so far, less than 1% have chosen the virtual academy, though the district is still working through applications.

It was never a question that enrollment in virtual options nationwide would be lower this year, as schools promised a return to relatively normal operations. The availability of vaccines for adults and older students has alleviated some health concerns, many students are weary of virtual school, and pediatricians, federal officials, and school leaders have urged families to send their children to school in person. Several states and school districts also prohibited or severely limited virtual options.

But some families still clamored for remote learning, often because they had immunocompromised family members or young children who weren’t yet eligible for a vaccine. And many districts that serve big cities are offering virtual school, at least for some students — raising questions about exactly how many would continue to learn online this year.

The answer appears to be relatively few, for now.

In Philadelphia, for example, just over 1% of students transferred into the district’s virtual academy this year. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, less than 2% of students chose the virtual option. A Chalkbeat survey of 10 Colorado districts last month, including Denver, found that between 1% and 2% of students had picked remote options, though districts cautioned that their numbers were still in flux. In Los Angeles, just over 2% of students have enrolled so far in the district’s virtual independent study, though some students are still waiting to have requests processed.

In Gwinnett County, Georgia and Duval County, Florida, about 3% of students chose online learning. And in Des Moines, Iowa, about 5% of students went with that option.

Those numbers represent a substantive change from pre-pandemic patterns, and some may tick up. But overall, enthusiasm for the virtual learning options available now appears muted.

The reasons why vary, but some families found these virtual options less appealing when they were spun off from their child’s school — sometimes resulting in less socialization and live instruction for students.

Becky Duffy, a parent in Des Moines, changed course after initially signing her first grader up for the district’s virtual option once she realized how different it would be.

Her daughter did well with virtual kindergarten, and she thought keeping her online could lower the risk that her 3-year-old, who had lung problems when she was born, could be exposed to COVID, since her state doesn’t allow schools to mandate masks. But last year, her daughter learned virtually alongside her classmates and built a relationship with her classroom teacher. This year, an outside company is running the program, and her daughter wouldn’t have had much interaction with an adult or her peers.

“If we would have had a dedicated teacher and there were more kids in her class and there were more people in the neighborhood who were doing it, I think it would have been a lot easier to make that choice,” she said. “When you’re all in the same boat for virtual learning, too, it’s a little different than if you’re just going at it alone.”

Bree Dusseault, an analyst at the Center for Reinventing Public Education who’s tracking 100 large districts’ back-to-school plans, has found that more than half of them are offering a remote option to all students, which tends to be a standalone program. Eighteen of the districts ask students to give up their seat in their home school.

“Their remote learning programs are not the core focus,” Dusseault said. “They’re often parallel programs to the in-person experience.”

For other parents, the way the virtual programs were set up made it difficult or impossible to enroll. Some districts capped enrollment or limited availability to students in certain grades or children with certain medical conditions. Other districts required families to talk with a staffer first, sometimes counseling them against signing up.

In Madison, Wisconsin, for example, only students in middle and high school could apply for the district’s new standalone virtual learning program. Students had to answer a series of essay questions to get in, including one about how they planned to overcome any virtual learning obstacles. The district received 452 applications, but accepted half — meaning, at most, around 1% of students will be enrolled.

Some districts offered short sign-up windows for virtual programs they hadn’t intended to offer.

In Texas, after Arlington Independent School District said it didn’t plan to offer a fully virtual option this year, Maria Juarez decided to homeschool her children. She had at-home lessons ready to go when her district announced a temporary remote option — and gave parents one day to enroll.

She rushed to sign up her children, who are in pre-kindergarten, first grade, and fifth grade. Juarez says she’ll give it a chance, but already she has concerns. She was told her kids wouldn’t get the virtual arts and dual language classes they took last year. Her two older children, who have individualized education programs, could only get the speech services and one-on-one extra help they got during the day last year after school.

“It’s basically you’re teaching yourself,” she said. “I feel like it’s really unfair. Last year, I feel like they knew how they were going to take care of things.”

Demand may continue to shift. A nationally representative survey of parents released Wednesday found that as the summer went on and virus cases rose, the percentage of parents who wanted full-time or part-time remote options had risen to 57%. Demand was highest among Hispanic and Black parents.

In some cities, like Memphis, a growing number of parents are pushing district officials to create a virtual option. Tennessee has the highest COVID case rate in the country, but officials there have put restrictions on virtual learning, and are only granting temporary waivers in limited cases.

“We don’t have a lot of viable options,” said Memphis parent Sara Corum, who expressed concern about sending her children back in person after they were exposed to COVID and had to quarantine at home. “No parent should ever be in the position we’re in. Ever.”

COVID vaccines for children under 12 may still be a ways off, and a chunk of parents don’t intend to inoculate their younger kids. But still, some families say they won’t need a virtual option anymore when their children can get shots.

Laura Coyle signed her first grader up for Des Moines’ self-paced virtual option, but allowed her 12 year old, who’s fully vaccinated, to go back in person if he wore a mask. She was swayed when he told her “how difficult it was for him emotionally and mentally to feel isolated and not to be around other children.”

Her daughter wanted to go to school in-person, too, but it’s off the table until she can be vaccinated. Even then, Coyle isn’t 100% sure.

“I still feel uncomfortable about it because I know not everybody is masking and vaccinated,” she said. But she knows it could help “balance out with her emotional and mental well-being.”

Schwinn approves 8 waivers allowing some Tennessee schools to shift to remote learning temporarily

2021-09-02T00:24:19+00:00

Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn has granted eight of 14 waiver requests from Tennessee school leaders wanting to switch temporarily to remote learning under a COVID response plan that began this week.

A spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Education said Wednesday that Schwinn also partially granted one other application and denied two, while three more requests weren’t eligible.

The department has not provided details about what applications have been submitted or approved. The process extends to charter schools but can’t be used to pivot entire school systems to virtual instruction.

The rollout of seven-day waivers, announced late last week, is Schwinn’s attempt to give district and school leaders some flexibility on new state rules that essentially require in-person instruction this academic year, except when individual students must temporarily isolate or quarantine due to the virus.

But Gov. Bill Lee’s administration is under increasing pressure to provide even greater flexibility for virtual learning as additional districts shut down under the strain of COVID’s highly contagious delta variant. According to data from the state health department, more than 38% of all Tennessee COVID cases reported last week were among children up to age 18.

Hamilton County school leaders were the latest to announce they will shutter their Chattanooga-based district for two days next week to try to tame the virus over the long Labor Day weekend. At least 17 other school systems were closed this week for the same reason, according to a list compiled by The Tennessean.

Such closures require districts to dip into stockpiled days used usually for inclement weather. District leaders are worried that at this rate, they’ll run out of those before winter arrives.

In Memphis, where the state’s largest district provided remote instruction for most of the last academic year, a school board meeting became emotional Tuesday night as parents pressed leaders of Shelby County Schools for more virtual options.

But officials there said state rules don’t provide the same flexibility as last year. And Schwinn’s waiver option is limiting too, they said.

“The process is stringent, and we understand there’s little likelihood of a large district like ours getting approved since we have a pool of substitutes and administrative office staff who can step in if we don’t have enough teachers to staff our classrooms,” spokeswoman Jerica Phillips said Wednesday.

“Right now, we’re managing,” Phillips added. “But we are also exploring ways to petition the state to expand our continuous learning plan — for instance, for families where there is chronic illness.”

Nashville school leaders don’t expect to request waivers either.

“Our focus remains on keeping mitigation strategies in place to keep students safe and learning in the classroom,” said spokesman Sean Braisted, citing universal masking, social distancing, and vaccinations for eligible students and staff in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.

During her weekly call with district superintendents on Wednesday, Schwinn said she is reviewing waiver requests on a case-by-case basis and looking especially closely at staffing problems.

Earlier in the week, she said there’s no clear criteria for granting waivers because “there’s a lot of variance across the state” on the size of schools and districts and availability of staff.

“It really is going to be about specific individual waiver requests at the classroom and at the school level, and it is when there is no way that you can continue to reasonably provide in-person instruction,” Schwinn told reporters.

“In-person instruction continues to be our priority in the state of Tennessee. That will not change,” she added.

Schwinn announced Wednesday that the state has reopened the application process for districts wanting to launch their own virtual schools in light of recent COVID outbreaks. In July, her department approved 29 new virtual schools for this year, bringing the total statewide number to 57.

Sen. Raumesh Akbari, who chairs the Senate Democratic caucus and serves on her chamber’s education committee, called on the governor to give school leaders more autonomy to respond locally to the public health crisis through an executive order or new state rule.

“Any flexibility being offered is helpful, but the delta variant wasn’t an issue when these decisions were made,” said Akbari, of Memphis. “We are now seeing record numbers of students being hospitalized and other students sitting at home and not learning because their schools have been closed. We are dealing with something that’s more unknown and potentially more deadly.”

A spokeswoman for Lee did not immediately respond Wednesday. The governor is scheduled to hold his weekly news conference on Thursday at the state Capitol.

Office hours in store for NYC students who must quarantine when their peers remain in school

2021-09-01T23:04:01+00:00

For students who must quarantine when their classmates can remain in school, their teachers must provide “office hours” instead of live instruction, education department officials announced Wednesday.

“Office hours” can mean multiple things — answering a student’s questions, individual or small group tutorials, check-ins on assignments, according to education department spokesperson Sarah Casasnovas.

Office hours will largely be for middle and high school students, who will have different quarantine rules from those in elementary schools, said Lauren Siciliano, the department’s chief administrative officer, during a Wednesday City Council hearing on school reopening.

Teachers will be paid overtime to dedicate two hours a week toward office hours for quarantined students, earning more if they teach multiple courses with students staying home, Casasnovas said. They will also receive $225 to set up “digital classrooms” for remote learning, and will receive four hours in overtime pay if more than half of their students are in quarantine at a given time, according to the agreement with the teachers union obtained by Chalkbeat.

Though Mayor Bill de Blasio said he anticipates fewer quarantines this year, if other parts of the country are any indication, teachers may end up needing to devote time and attention to a significant number of students.

At the hearing, schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said school officials have been working closely with the union to hammer out the details of remote instruction during quarantines. Casasnovas confirmed that negotiations are complete with the union over remote instruction requirements. Union officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“We’ve been really working with our union partners to answer those questions,” Porter said. “The commitment to continuing instruction for our students throughout, in a quarantine, is there from all of us.”

Teachers — who are required to have at least one vaccine dose by Sept. 27 — can hold the office hours during their preparation period, during lunch time, or after school, Casasnovas said.

Who will have office hours?

Many schools may have a challenging time figuring out how they will provide office hours when entire classrooms don’t have to shut down but some children might be in quarantine.

In middle and high schools, vaccinated students won’t have to quarantine following exposure to an infected person in a classroom, as long as they’re not showing symptoms, but their unvaccinated peers will have to isolate for up to 10 days. They will have an option to return after a week as long as they have a negative COVID test after five days in isolation.

This could get complicated, since students in older grades move from class to class with different students.

The city is trying to ensure as many eligible children are vaccinated, so as part of the city’s vaccination push for children, all schools with students ages 12 and older will provide vaccines (with parental consent) during the week of Sept. 13, when students return, officials also announced on Wednesday.

Second doses will be provided at those same schools the week of Oct. 4.

The rules around remote instruction are more straightforward in elementary school where children are too young to be vaccinated: if a positive COVID case arises, the entire class must quarantine and instruction will shift to remote.

There are no requirements for how much live instruction teachers must provide in the case of full classroom or school closures, according to the agreement between the city and the union. Teachers and other mandated related service providers will be required “to share content via these classrooms that is necessary to effectively engage students and provide instruction during the emergency closure.”

Additionally, there may be situations where just one student in an elementary school class will have to quarantine, depending on how they were exposed, and they would receive office hours, Casasnovas said.

Teachers scratch their heads

If teachers are overseeing multiple courses with quarantined students, they can divide their allotted time for office hours equally among those classes. For example, a teacher with two partially quarantined classes could devote 90 minutes of office hours to both.

Many teachers said they were initially blindsided by the news.

Mike Loeb, a middle school science teacher at the Urban Institute of Mathematics in the Bronx, wondered how schools would build in office hours for quarantined students into their existing schedules.

“Schools have already made their schedules,” he wrote in a text message. “Office hours didn’t exist before COVID so the only template we have is what we did during COVID, when office hours came at the expense of instructional time.” He noted that the school might have to repurpose time that is typically reserved for training and other activities.

Nate Stripp, an eighth grade social studies teacher at M.S. 50 in Brooklyn, said his school is planning to hold individual Zoom rooms for students in the same grade who are required to quarantine. They would place “remote coaches” in those virtual rooms to help students and ensure they are “with an adult,” he said. Those coaches would be a range of staffers, including paraprofessionals and substitute teachers.

But it’s unclear to Stripp whether that plan would meet the city’s requirements without any further information from the education department or the union. He’s also unsure how teachers would plan for office hours with a full in-person schedule this year.

“If we are teaching full loads and doing office hours, I want to see a more specific plan for that,” Stripp said. “Really, I would like to see a more fleshed out policy about all of this — that would be particularly helpful for all of us involved so that we can make our plans concrete.”

Debate over a remote option continues

School officials promised that students would have the technology needed to shift to remote learning. At the City Council hearing, officials said they’ve purchased an additional 175,000 devices, which are a mixture of internet-enabled iPads and Chromebooks, to distribute to schools in need of them. They could not say how many device requests are currently unfulfilled.

Multiple council members asked Porter why remote instruction is not an option for the fall, echoing calls from families over the past several months. They said families should have the option, pointing to the highly transmissible delta variant of COVID and protecting students who aren’t eligible for vaccines.

Porter and Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi reiterated that they didn’t think a remote option was necessary for most students in the face of the city’s multiple layers of protection in schools, including masking, social distancing where possible, improved ventilation, and testing 10% of each school twice a month.

Porter also said she heard the most concerns from families with medically fragile students, who will be eligible for a remote instruction.

She also said the system is prepared to shut down entirely, if necessary.

“If cases rise and we have to go remote, we are prepared to do that,” Porter said.

Alex Zimmerman contributed.

Schwinn to consider waivers to shift schools to virtual learning as COVID cases spike in Tennessee

2021-08-28T01:14:48+00:00

Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn announced Friday she will consider granting waivers to let school districts shift to remote instruction in response to outbreaks of COVID and a raft of school closures.

In a letter to superintendents, Schwinn said the seven-day waivers will be for classrooms or schools only, not entire districts. But waivers won’t be required to move individual students online due to virus-related quarantines.

While the “additional flexibility” is needed, Schwinn said the waivers will be “narrowly applied to preserve in-person learning wherever practicable.”

Her announcement came in response to a surge in pediatric COVID cases, a wave of school closures and canceled bus routes, confusion about the state’s rules for providing remote instruction, and inconsistencies in how those rules are being applied.

On Wednesday, after Gov. Bill Lee said he won’t issue an executive order to let entire districts move online, Schwinn said school systems already had the ability to shift schools or classrooms to virtual instruction without dipping into days stockpiled for inclement weather and illness.

But administrators and parents complained about mixed messages from the state, and Schwinn promised to deliver clearer guidance.

Dale Lynch, who leads the state superintendents organization, called the new waiver process “good news” for educators and students.

“This is a critical need, and we’re appreciative of any flexibility that will allow schools to keep operating and students to keep learning,” he said.

House Education Committee Chairman Mark White welcomed the change as well.

“I believe this is a way to address the need for schools to have virtual learning during this time of COVID spiking, but at the same time set parameters on how long virtual learning can take place based on quarantine guidelines,” said White, a Republican from Memphis.

Schwinn’s letter said the waiver process aims for “a nimble approach” to help schools navigate the worsening pandemic, marked by 14,000 pediatric cases of COVID across Tennessee for the week ending Aug. 21. She promised her team will review waiver requests daily and respond “as quickly as possible,” but that she will make the final decision.

According to a copy of the waiver request form, districts must document and demonstrate “a significant impact of COVID-19 quarantine or isolation on school operations, impacting students, teachers and/or staff.”

If a waiver is granted, all extracurricular activities at the school must also be canceled.

Districts had blanket authority last year to shift to virtual learning when needed. But because spring testing showed students fell dramatically behind academically, a new state rule for 2021-22 requires schools to provide in-person instruction and tap into stockpiled days if they have to close.

This week, as more Tennessee schools closed, educators, parents, and policymakers clamored for expanded remote options to manage the more contagious delta variant.

Earlier Friday, the legislature’s Democratic leaders called on the governor to provide school leaders with immediate flexibility.

“We have kids being sent home to quarantine without a clear way to stay on top of their schoolwork. That’s unacceptable,” said the Democrats’ letter.

Schwinn told Chalkbeat she expects to consider waivers for the “foreseeable future” and will reassess the need “week by week.”

“I think this is the right approach, and I feel confident districts will be judicious in seeking waivers,” she said. “It continues to be really important that we maximize in-person instruction.”

Below, you can read Schwinn’s letter to superintendents:

What type of instruction will NYC students receive in quarantine? Schools are in the dark.

2021-08-27T00:12:33+00:00

For weeks, educators and families have been waiting for New York City’s plan for handling positive coronavirus cases in schools and how to teach students if they’re forced to quarantine.

But even as officials offered new details Thursday about when students would be forced to learn remotely, there was scant information about what that instruction would look like.

“We’re going to be filling in a few more blanks in the next few days because there’s still a couple of issues being worked out,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters, noting the city is negotiating with union leaders.

With fewer than three weeks until students return to classrooms, some educators are frustrated without clear answers about how they should approach teaching classrooms that may be splintered with some students quarantined at home while others continue learning in person.

“It feels like we’re coming down the wire, and this was a predictable problem for weeks and weeks and months and months,” said Mike Loeb, a middle school science teacher at the Urban Institute of Mathematics in the Bronx. “There needs to be a plan in place.”

Whatever plan de Blasio ultimately releases will have an enormous impact on student learning this year. Even as the mayor has insisted on requiring students to return to school buildings this fall, after more than 60% learned fully remotely last year, city officials have settled on quarantine policies that will likely force many students to learn from home for several days at a time when cases are identified.

Elementary school classrooms will be forced to quarantine for 10 days with just one positive case, a policy that is more conservative than what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. City officials said elementary schools will be expected to provide live instruction to quarantined students and should be provided by their regular teacher, though it’s not clear how many hours of instruction students should expect.

One Manhattan elementary school principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she was “glad that the DOE is erring on the side of caution” given that the more contagious delta variant has been circulating, and none of her students are eligible for vaccination. She plans to require all of her teachers to use Google Classroom as soon as the school year starts to communicate with families and post assignments so it’s less disruptive if classrooms have to suddenly quarantine. If necessary, the school plans to recreate a full day of lessons on Zoom, with slightly less live instruction for the youngest children.

The picture is murkier for middle and high schools because vaccinated students who aren’t showing symptoms will be allowed to continue learning in person, while unvaccinated students who are exposed will be required to learn from home for seven to 10 days.

City officials did not say whether middle and high school students should expect to continue working with their regular teachers while they’re quarantined, nor did they explain what type of instruction they might receive, such as live lessons or assignments to be completed on their own time.

It’s also unclear whether teachers could be expected to livestream their classrooms and teach students in front of them and at home simultaneously, a solution some other school districts have pursued, but which New York City union leaders successfully resisted last school year. In Broward County, Florida, the nation’s sixth-largest school district, a virtual homework hotline has been expanded to provide support to quarantined students during the school day. Chicago will require teachers to livestream a portion of their lessons. But in other school districts, students have been sent home with paper worksheets and little other support.

The benefit of livestreaming is its simplicity and that it could save schools from complex staffing arrangements to oversee remote learning when students are at home. But several New York City teachers said such a setup would be difficult to pull off without disadvantaging the students who are learning from home or without better cameras and microphones in their classrooms, a problem teachers have experienced across the country.

Nathan Floro, who teaches English as a new language at Brooklyn’s New Utrecht High School, said such a setup would likely shortchange at least one group of students and make it difficult to attempt more interactive lessons for the students who are in person.

“You’re kinda baby-sitting a computer monitor instead of engaging kids who are in person and making sure they’re on task, so you end up getting the worst of both worlds,” Floro said.

Even though every educator taught remotely last year for at least part of the time, quickly launching quality remote lessons could be a challenge, especially as teachers will likely keep teaching students in person every day even if their classroom must quarantine (all teachers must be vaccinated).

Last year, most teachers continuously planned remote lessons because the majority of students were fully remote, and many others only came to school buildings on staggered schedules, learning from home the rest of the time. This year, the amount of remote teaching that will be expected is less predictable.

Loeb, the middle school math teacher, said it’s important for schools to plan for the possibility of remote learning in advance, even as city officials emphasize that in-person learning will be the norm. Communicating with students and families how to log on and manage digital assignments is essential so a sudden quarantine doesn’t leave them scrambling to navigate login information and the specifics of how various digital platforms work.

“We need to explicitly prepare our kids for that,” he said.

Julie Zuckerman, principal of Manhattan’s Castle Bridge School, said she might take the opposite approach: leaning on paper packets instead of trying to spin up digital classrooms without knowing in advance which students may have to quarantine and with little time to prepare before the school year starts. She would even consider having outdoor classes in a nearby playground, weather permitting and with everyone masked, for students who are supposed to be quarantining, so long as their parents were OK with it.

Quarantines can happen unexpectedly, and in that case, many logistics would have to be worked out at Castle Bridge. That includes redistributing devices they’ve collected from every child and tweaking what the children were learning in school into online lessons that they can post on Google Classroom.

“We cannot pivot to give the kids the Mercedes experience of teaching and learning while they’re quarantining for which we have had no time to prepare,” Zuckerman said. “So I think that’s the thing — that we have to change the expectation.”

Christina Veiga contributed

Tennessee governor says no again as some school leaders clamor for remote learning

2021-08-26T01:37:46+00:00

Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday he has no plans to allow school systems to shift to virtual learning, despite another COVID surge and calls from district leaders wanting flexibility to manage the public health crisis.

At a news conference, Lee said he’s not considering issuing an executive order that would let district leaders have the same remote options as last year — “in part because we saw just how devastating the learning loss impact was when we went remote.”

But his education chief, Penny Schwinn, clarified later that districts already have authority to temporarily move individual students, classes, or even entire schools online in response to a COVID outbreak. In those cases, she said, districts would not have to dip into their allotment of days stockpiled for inclement weather, sickness, or staffing problems.

“Right now, [remote instruction] is available to use on a school-by-school basis and an individual basis. You cannot use it district-wide,” Schwinn told Chalkbeat.

The approach means Tennessee expects school leaders to use a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer to respond as cases of COVID’s delta variant increase dramatically among school-age children.

The state logged about 14,000 pediatric cases last week, an increase of 57% over the prior week, and more of those children are needing medical attention. The biggest spike has been in children ages 5-13, most of whom are still too young to be vaccinated, said Dr. Lisa Piercey, state health commissioner.

Lee, Piercey, and Schwinn spoke with reporters at the Nashville headquarters of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency after the governor returned from touring flood-ravaged Humphreys County, west of Nashville.

While he does not support mandates, Lee emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated and wearing masks to lessen virus spread in both classrooms and communities.

“Let me just say and remind parents, you have tools to protect your children and to help mitigate the spread,” Lee said. “[For ages] 12 and over, vaccine is the tool. Every parent can have their children wear a mask to school as a tool to mitigate the spread.”

His comments came just days after school leaders in Memphis urged families to contact the governor’s office about needing remote flexibility for Shelby County Schools — not only because of ill and quarantined students but because of challenges staffing classrooms.

Some district or charter administrators already have dipped into their stockpiled days to close schools because of quarantined teachers or staff. In Memphis this week, Frayser Community Schools closed MLK College Prep for two days, while Williamson County Schools closed one of its middle schools for one day last week.

In a letter Tuesday, two school superintendents in the governor’s home county worried the situation isn’t sustainable.

Jason Golden, with Williamson County Schools, and David Snowden, with Franklin Special School District, asked state lawmakers to lobby the governor to reinstate remote learning as a tool to help manage COVID spread. They said many of their schools were approaching a staffing “crisis point” and asked for flexibility to shift schools or grades to remote instruction to avoid depleting stockpiled days before winter arrives.

But Schwinn said districts have options beyond using stockpiled days to respond to COVID-related staffing problems. Those include holding remote classes on a temporary basis, or allowing a quarantined teacher to virtually teach students who remain in their school buildings under the supervision of another adult.

“I trust my district leaders to make the best decisions for their communities on that,” said Schwinn, adding that the state isn’t defining what constitutes an outbreak or a staffing shortage.

Schwinn emphasized the state doesn’t plan to move to a “blanket approach” on remote learning.

“Because there are so many individual quarantines at individual schools, there are some superintendents who would like to have a more uniform approach across the district. But we’re not going to do that,” she said.

In a separate interview, House Speaker Cameron Sexton said more discussion is needed to clear up confusion about policies that are supposed to address ongoing disruptions to learning.

“We’re going to be facing this for the next 5 or 10 years easily as we go through COVID. I think there needs to be a bigger conversation about the direction for school boards to set the policy so parents know what it is and understand it,” Sexton said.

Elizabeth Tullos, a spokeswoman for the State Board of Education, said any decision to close schools should be made at the local level. If any closures exceed a district’s number of stockpiled days, districts may ask Schwinn for a waiver from the required 180 days of instruction.

“Along with other state leaders, the State Board of Education is monitoring what rules and policies, if any, are needed in further response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Tullos said.