Eamonn Fitzmaurice/LA School Report

More than three years after the pandemic began, a crisis in teaching quality may be stalling academic recovery, new research shows.

Faced with exhaustion, staffing shortages, and frequent student disruptions, many educators are using “outdated and ineffective” methods and content below grade level, according to a report released last week by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University, part of a research project done in conjunction with the RAND Corporation.

Researchers analyzed interviews from 30 leaders, predominantly superintendents and chief academic officers, across five traditional districts and charter systems.

To cover extra classes amid shortages, teachers lost prep periods and opportunities to collaborate with colleagues, the report found. Many went years without feedback from principal observations, and are managing higher rates of challenging student behavior. These challenges, and a tight labor market that leans on early career educators who don’t yet have the experience to weather them, are all contributing to the crisis.

As a result, educators reverted to older, more basic strategies. For instance, students were asked to work in groups without further direct instruction from the teacher; prompted to use screens or technology unnecessarily; and were frequently disengaged.

“Just like we’re hearing about student learning loss, these leaders were seeing that their teachers were also experiencing teaching loss,” said Lydia Rainey, who co-authored the last of four American School District Panel reports that explored how school leaders were responding to the pandemic with Paul Hill and Robin Lake.

Teaching quality is not solely responsible for the stall in academic progress — high dosage tutoring and technology supports, baked into recovery plans to help fill academic gaps, were ideals difficult to obtain in practice.

It’s possible, too, that teachers’ classroom choices have been impacted by political fights over curricula.  

“When folks are stressed or depressed, or have not fully mastered what policy is asking them to do, they will revert to what they know. And what a lot of people know is how they went to school,” Rainey said.

Both researchers and the leaders they interviewed were shocked by how much the quality of instruction had suffered in the wake of the pandemic — something leaders didn’t anticipate when drafting recovery plans.

“No one was thinking about this possibility, that teaching would suffer returning to school,” Rainey added. “Beyond just these leaders, this was not in the national conversation about COVID recovery, either. This was a surprise to them and to us.”

As one leader at a mid-sized, suburban district in the West summarized, there’s “a survival mode in teacher practice” right now. For an urban charter system leader on the East coast, “It’s difficult to point to a model classroom at this point.”

Staffing and mental health crises that put teachers under daily duress also strained efforts to boost instruction quality. Leaders knew teachers “were ‘exhausted,’ and they worried about asking them to do more,” according to the report.

Beyond the classroom, a compounding challenge is making accelerated learning a nearly impossible task: ambitious school district recovery plans have gone unrealized.

“Tutoring has been difficult, retention bonuses were ineffective, technology tools that they purchased didn’t work exactly as hoped,” said Rainey.

Still, teachers were tasked with bringing pandemic learners back on track, without planned support from key interventions like quality high-dosage tutoring.

In the 2022-23 school year, leaders diverted time and resources away from tutoring or other student interventions in order to rebuild teachers’ core skills.

The response, because resources are limited, “means there are few, if any, of the extra supports that research suggests will help the students who need them most,” the report stated.

Researchers recommend that federal Title I funding become more flexible, so that schools can afford both to address learning and teaching loss, and encourage states to subsidize and evaluate high quality tutoring options.

Principals could continue to ask teachers directly about what supports they need and provide regular feedback from classroom observations, Rainey said.

They also suggested leaders leverage quality resources already in their communities, like bringing parents in to tutor as Oakland Reach has, and consider creative ways to support students who may graduate with core gaps in knowledge, like gap year programs.

While findings are not representative of all U.S. public schools, they do provide some explanation behind national trends in academic performance. Systems represented in the report serve 6,000 to 40,000, predominantly students of color and large proportions of low-income students.

“These five systems are showing that they can’t get out of this on their own,” said Rainey. “This is really an all-hands-on-deck moment.”

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy testifies during a Senate Finance Committee hearing titled “Protecting Youth Mental Health: Part I – An Advisory and Call to Action,” on Capitol Hill. (Getty Images)

The U.S. Surgeon General’s dire warnings on the youth mental health crisis will likely prompt more school districts to sue big tech companies, according to advocates and lawyers involved in ongoing litigation.

Surgeon general Vivek Murthy warned last month in a 19-page advisory that social media poses a profound risk to children, with excessive use impacting sleep, relationships and depression that can lead to thoughts of suicide. The report may also shape national policy as legislators and courts take on algorithms, privacy and age policies, and access to platforms.

“We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address,” Murthy said in a statement.

According to Murthy’s report, even as 95% of teens and 40% of 8-12 year olds use social media, there is no evidence platforms are “sufficiently safe.” Spending more than three hours daily doubles their risk of poor mental health, including depression and anxiety symptoms, the report states. The average daily use for teens is three and a half hours, research shows.

The surgeon general also noted push notifications, infinite scrolls, and public like lists are particularly enticing and concerning for youth in early adolescence who frequently compare themselves to peers.

Citing many of the same concerns Murthy identified, more than 100 school districts nationwide have sued companies including TikTok, Snap, YouTube and Meta for their allegedly addictive algorithms that they say harm students.

Lawyers at the forefront of district litigation said the surgeon general’s report strengthens their claims.

“I think you’re going to see even more file as a result of this advisory,” said Dean Kawamoto, counsel with Keller Rohrback, the leading Seattle-based law firm representing several districts who hope to make platforms less harmful.

But some lawyers not involved in the case remain skeptical, believing that while the report will inform the national conversation, it does not carry enough weight to make waves in court.

“It is tentative and ambiguous and not really definitive in the way that most courts are going to want when ruling on something being dangerous,” said Rebecca Tushnet, First Amendment expert and Harvard Law professor.

In contrast to the definitive stance on, for example, smoking, the surgeon general acknowledged social media also holds benefits. Platforms can help create a community for marginalized young people.

Active Minds, one of the nation’s leading mental health advocacy nonprofits, urged families and policy makers curbing social media access in the wake of the advisory to consider what may be lost.

Bans could cut off access to critical sex education or communities where isolated LGBTQ, Black and Brown youth feel they belong — similar reasons other organizations publicly oppose the Kids Online Safety Act.

“While the harmful impacts of social media usage on youth mental health certainly exist, are well documented, and require additional research…we’ve also heard from many youth and young adults, particularly from vulnerable communities, who credit social media with saving their lives,” Active Minds told The 74.

Among the practical recommendations for families and tech companies: set limits in the house around meals or bedtime; reach out for help; share data that could further research on health impacts; enforce age minimums; develop safety standards by age; and increase funding for research.

“Our children and adolescents don’t have the luxury of waiting years until we know the full extent of social media’s impact. Their childhoods and development are happening now,” the report states.

About two thirds of adolescents are “often” or “sometimes” exposed to hate-based content. Six in 10 girls have been contacted by a stranger on social media in ways that make them uncomfortable. Young girls and LGBTQ youth are more likely than their peers to experience cyberbullying or harassment, which about 75% of adolescents believe is poorly managed by social media sites.

At the same time, in a recent survey of young TikTok users, 64% said they would rather give up their right to vote for one year than give up their social media accounts.

Meta and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

“As a messaging service for real friends, we applaud the Surgeon General’s principled approach to protecting teens from the ills of traditional social media platforms,” a spokesperson for Snap Inc, owner of SnapChat, told The 74.

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

Deborah Offner

Every day, adults are tasked with supporting young people showing behavioral changes or experiencing a mental health crisis. The problem? Many are unprepared to do so.

It’s a challenge Deborah Offner came up against so often, as a consulting psychologist for schools in and around Boston, she decided to write a guide. Urgency is only growing: a recent CDC report shows about a third of teen girls contemplate suicide, the second-leading cause of death for children.

Educators as First Responders: A Teacher’s Guide to Adolescent Development and Mental Health, Grades 6-12, published this winter by Routledge, delves into the adolescent brain. Offner pairs the science of what’s happening, at a given age or for those with a particular mental illness, with school-based examples she and educators have had over decades.

Through it all, she invites readers to take off their adult hats and to see youth behavior in the context of development. How are requests for nudes, for example, registering in a 14-year old’s brain? What are they seeing as the risk and rewards? What other information do you need to know to decide whether to pull a counselor or parent in?

“Teachers really are playing these significant roles, to help kids develop and manage their emotional lives. They should be a little more equipped and supported to be able to do that in a way that they feel confident about because they’re doing it anyway,” said Offner, who also treats children and young adults in her private practice.

In discussion with LA School Report, Offner reveals the best practices adults can keep in mind and how schools can meet some of students’ emotional needs beyond referral to talk therapy.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Please be advised that some responses reference self-harm and suicide. 

LA School Report: As somebody who’s done this work for decades, is thinking of educators as first responders in this way a new paradigm or shift? Why write this now?

When I tell teachers, and other mental health professionals who work in schools, it seems very intuitive. Of course, kids go to their teacher when they’re upset. But it’s not recognized or acknowledged as being such a central part of the role.

In part I wrote the book to call attention to the fact that teachers really are playing these significant roles, to help kids develop and manage their emotional lives. They should be a little more equipped and supported to be able to do that in a way that they feel confident about because they’re doing it anyway. What are some things I can do and say? I understand these kids as learners, but how do I understand them as people?

You spend the first good chunk of the book with the social contexts that shape adolescence and the psychology behind kids’ actions. Why is that understanding critical and how might educators’ actions change as a result? What’s the danger of what you call an “adult-centric lens”?

One of the things I like to do when I work with schools is to help build empathy in adults for what kids and also parents go through. When teachers understand what’s behind the behavior, there’s a couple of things that change. You don’t take it personally when a kid isn’t paying attention, can’t remember to do something, or has a certain attitude. You recognize that it’s not something you’re necessarily doing wrong, or something that if you just were different would change. It’s what they’re going through, and also, it’s normal.

There’s great benefit to the increased awareness of mental health issues in kids, but at the same time, there’s a lot of things that all kids do that can look a little crazy if you don’t recognize why it is. They don’t have the same controls, the same ways of thinking or organizing themselves and behavior that adults do. So it normalizes some of the funny things that can be perplexing or frustrating; it helps you to have perspective on them.

I’m curious if you have an example from talking to a teacher about this. Any light-bulb moments to share, from when you explained the underpinning of a behavior?

There’s an example I use in the book about a boy who looked really indifferent, kind of lazy, like he didn’t care about his work or about his teachers expectations of him. Teachers would ask him to meet after class and he would just disappear, slink out of the room. He was getting behind and seemed really disengaged.

As the school counselor, I got an opportunity to speak with a therapist he was working with outside of school and learned from her that he had the worst case of social anxiety she’d ever seen. And once I understood, oh, that’s why he’s avoiding his teachers. That’s why he seems shut down. It’s actually called social phobia, a specific disorder. It’s not being shy or not wanting to talk to people exactly. It’s about worrying that other people are gonna think something critical of you, or bad. He was actually so exquisitely sensitive to feeling like he was letting his teachers down that he was avoiding them.

Once they knew that, rather than just being angry and taking it personally, they were more sympathetic and could put some plans into place. I helped him to agree to what would work for him so that he could connect with them and do better. It wasn’t a magic solution, but the energy in the room changes when you explain to faculty why a kid is struggling, right?

It’s funny you bring up that example because it’s one I wanted to ask you about. What would you have done if there wasn’t yet a therapist to consult in that case? How would you have gone about finding or meeting his needs without the context?

That’s a great question because in so many cases, kids don’t have one, let alone one that knows them so well that they can offer you that kind of input. What I recommend to anyone who’s in a counseling role, or even like a Dean or administrative role, is to try to sit down with a student and hear their point of view about what’s going on. Often, kids will tell a counselor things that they might not share with a teacher. With the kids permission, you can, in some ways, act as a liaison. Even if the kid doesn’t want you to share everything they’ve told you, if you come to a better understanding of what’s going on, you can share that.

What factors adults can look out for to keep a pulse on a student’s well being while maintaining their boundaries?

Every student has different boundaries. There’s some kids, as we all know, that will tell you everything from what they ate for breakfast to a fight they had with their best friend whether you want to know or not. And there’s other kids that keep their cards really close to their chest. You have to — this is the beauty of teachers — get to know your students. Sometimes it can be as simple as asking, how are you doing? Kids can be almost surprised and even kind of touched that a teacher is interested. That is always a starting point. It doesn’t mean that a kid is going to tell you in the moment about a serious problem they’re having, but showing that you want to know it’s an important step in the direction of kids feeling they could open up to you if they wanted to.

Obviously if you notice any change in behavior — like a kid who’s usually alert who suddenly seems sleepy — it’s okay to say, are you feeling okay? You seem a little different or not quite yourself today, or you’re quieter than usual.

You mentioned earlier that sometimes teachers are unsure of when to not fly solo and involve a professional clinician or let the family know. What are some considerations that a teacher can think through?

The bright lines that I draw have to do with any physical or potential harm to the student. If a kid is talking about suicide, cutting themselves, or other things that have to do with concrete harm, it’s really important that you not be the only one who knows that, especially when you’re not trained to assess the seriousness, gravity or reality of such a situation. Sometimes kids cut themselves and it doesn’t mean anything other than that they’re trying to manage their distress. It’s not a good sign, but it doesn’t mean that they’re going to necessarily attempt suicide.

In situations where there’s the possibility of self harm, whether it’s happened or might happen, it’s really important to let the student know that you need to let their parents know or let the school counselor know. You can give them a choice about how you tell their parents, whether they want to tell them and then have them loop back to you, there’s different ways to negotiate the process, but that’s again the bright line.

Otherwise, I think if a kid tells you something and you find yourself thinking about it after you go home, it’s always great to run it by a mental health professional at the school, even without a name if you want to protect the kids privacy, just to get someone else’s take on it. Someone who’s trained and knows maybe a little more about the specifics of what’s worrisome.

What are some best practices to keep in mind when a young person discloses something traumatic or difficult for them?

One of the first things that you always want to say if a kid confides in you about something traumatic is to thank them for letting you know, that you’re so glad that they were able to tell you, that you wouldn’t want them to be alone with this experience. Ask, have they told anybody else? Oftentimes kids will confide in a teacher, and it will be the first person they’ve told about something like this. Find out so you’re aware if you’re the only person holding this fact, or if in fact the parents already know. That’s a really different scenario, if you know that another adult is kind of taking responsibility.

Certainly in that first conversation, do not jump to issues of reporting or filing charges are anything administrative or procedural, but focus more on how they’re doing and to maybe ask for a little bit more detail. Say something like, if you feel comfortable telling me, could you let me know a little more about what happened, is there anyone else who would like to know, or anything else that I can do to be helpful?

Of course, if someone under 18 tells you they’ve been sexually assaulted, you’re a mandated reporter. There are those requirements, legally. But again, I wouldn’t bring that up in the first meeting. Generally speaking, you should go to your school administration and potentially the school counselor to talk about how the school wants to make the report and certainly not to do it without involving the student and potentially their family. In the moment, it’s just important to be there and sit with the kid and absorb whatever they’re feeling.

Another issue you raise in the book is this idea of compassion fatigue that some educators face. Can you share how that might show up in school and what educators can do to best avoid it or manage it when it comes?

This is a huge theme right now in schools, as we as a culture and country recognize the prevalence of trauma, of being sexually assaulted. So for example, a kid tells you they were sexually assaulted, there’s sort of a vicarious traumatization that happens when you hear a story like that, but it could also be more subtle things like their parent mistreating them or them going through a difficult depression.

As we bring an empathic response to supporting that child, and the more we do that, it can take a toll on us. The ways to address it have to do with building a network or community, finding a mentor or supervisor or someone that you can share some of the weight. It’s sharing it with another adult or a small group and also taking care of yourself in all the ways that we’ve been told to throughout the pandemic, whether it’s exercise, sleep, making time for yourself, to prevent the kind of fatigue that can happen.

When you saw the latest findings from the CDC about the frequency of sexual assault and suicidal ideation, what was your reaction personally?

On the one hand, as a human as a parent, I was horrified. As a psychologist who works with many girls in high school and college, I wasn’t surprised at all. I would say, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating, that virtually every girl in my practice over the age of 18 has been either sexually assaulted or coerced into sex at least once. Now, I have a small practice but these are girls from all different backgrounds and different schools. It’s really pervasive in a way that continues to shock me, even though I also know it’s reality.

You’ve also worked with youth interfacing with the foster care system and underserved youth in Boston more generally. For educators whose student populations are disproportionately impacted by poverty, homelessness, or adverse childhood experiences, are there specific things you recommend keeping in mind when they take on this first-responder approach?

There are ways to be sensitive and thoughtful if you’re a person who doesn’t come from a background of poverty and you’re not familiar with some of the sort of coping strategies that families may have to use. It’s important to be sensitive, both to the economic strain on families and also to cultural preferences for ways of talking about and dealing with mental health.

A common thing for our families from Beacon Academy — who are all students of color and low-income, some have parents who have immigrated fairly recently — is that older kids will take care of younger kids on a regular basis. They may spend many, many hours caring for their siblings in a way that more privileged families may not, and often that could interfere with following through on a commitment to an extracurricular activity or something at school. It’s important, if you find a kid who is having trouble meeting a certain expectation, to gently explore and understand. Are there family commitments that are taking up their time? That’s really different than if someone doesn’t feel like getting up in the morning. Maybe their mom had to go to work and they couldn’t afford a babysitter.

That goes back to the idea of building empathy you mentioned earlier. We also know that suicidal ideation, depression and anxiety symptoms are more common in particular marginalized student groups — girls, students of color, queer students. Are there particular supports to keep in mind for them? 

The thing to keep in mind about these identities is that they may make kids more vulnerable, or more worried about sharing information for fear of people judging or criticizing them or not being accepting. What I always have in mind for myself is the kid’s identity, as I understand it and as they claim it, and also my own identity — what the differences are in those. Then I can see and mind the gap.

How can schools be more affirming right now outside of offering traditional talk therapy, particularly because a lot of students might have family contexts that still stigmatize care or can’t access it? 

I think mental health awareness days are always helpful. I was in a school last week that had a wellness day for the middle and high school. Kids could go to all kinds of workshops; I did one on perfectionism for high school students. They had a dance group come and other speakers to talk about things like body image and dieting. That was a very popular talk because a lot of kids have concerns about that. I think it started off as kids being skeptical and now it’s like a day that nobody wants to miss. They have therapy pets come, someone doing caricatures, but it celebrates that wellness is important for kids. It’s not just about being high achieving academically or athletically.

There’s other ways to offer support in-school that aren’t therapy, per se. For younger kids, and this could even go through middle school, lunch groups may be held with either a school counselor or someone savvy about kids. They can talk about mental health, relationships; kids could come together and be able to chat with each other and with a teacher for no particular reason. It doesn’t have to be only kids that are having trouble.

At the school where I am, we had someone come in — he’s not a therapist, more of a coach, who’s going to do some art projects with the kids and provide a safe space for kids to chat with him if they wish. It’s activity-based, but it’s a time for them to just be there for themselves and not have any expectations on them. Doing things that show that you value their well being can be really important and parents never have to pay or give permission for it.

Lastly, are there particular storylines, or aspects of youth mental health that you feel are being misrepresented, over- or underrepresented?

What I feel is probably not addressed enough is family life and the importance of supporting parents so that they can effectively support their kids. You see a lot about either the sort of fetishization of motherhood — maternal love as this kind of ideal, special, gendered state — or parents who are abusive. The extremes of parents. Most parents are obviously somewhere in the middle, either themselves struggling with mental health issues or ambivalent about the pressures that parent parenthood puts on them.

For today’s kids, there’s so much about social media and the effects of that in terms of mental health, but in my experience, a lot of what determines how kids feel about themselves and how well they do is their relationship with their parents. I wish there was more attention to helping parents be more present in better ways for their kids.

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Additional resources are available at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources. For LGBTQ mental health support, you can contact The Trevor Project’s toll-free support line at 866-488-7386.

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

Now, new national data unveil one factor that could be exacerbating the crisis: a record increase in sexual violence.

Nearly 1 in 5 teen girls experienced sexual violence in 2021, forced to kiss or touch someone in their life, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey released this month.

A startling 14%, more than 1 in 10, were forced to have sex against their will, according to the report which compiled responses from 17,000 young people surveyed in the fall of 2021. The violence is up 20% since 2017.

The CDC conducts the survey every other year, though this report is the first to capture pandemic-era trends. And while there are bright spots — bullying and use of illicit drugs are down overall — the recent findings are grim.

In 2021, at least 18% of girls experienced some form of sexual violence — forced to touch or kiss someone in their life. And while the rate of girls forced to have sex in particular had remained pretty constant for the last 10 years, in the two year period from 2019 to 2021, it jumped from 11% to 14%.

“This is truly alarming,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s division of adolescent and school health. “For every 10 teenage girls you know, at least one of them, and probably more, has been raped. This tragedy cannot continue.”

Nearly 1 in 3 girls also seriously considered suicide. One quarter of girls and 37% of lesbian, gay or queer youth made suicide plans. Thirteen percent of girls attempted it, the highest numbers in a decade, roughly double the rate for boys.

While increases in suicidal ideation can be seen across many demographics, Black and Native or Indigenous students remain significantly more likely to attempt and are the students most impacted by housing insecurity.

“America’s teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma,” said Debra Houry, chief medical officer for the CDC, during a press briefing.

“These data are hard to hear and should result in action,” Houry said. “As a parent to a teenage girl, I am heartbroken.”

Research confirms adolescents who are forced to kiss, touch or have sex with people against their will are more likely to develop symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress. In children, this can manifest in a number of ways, including withdrawal from friends or social activities, difficulty sleeping, poor attendance and academic performance, self-harm, substance abuse and suicidal ideation.

Houry said while this report did not look at the connections between sexual violence and the increase in depression and suicidality, prior research has shown “sexual violence is associated with mental health issues, substance use and also long-term health consequences.”

CDC

Girls are also 5% more likely than boys to misuse prescription opioids and more likely to have tried illicit drugs like cocaine, inhalants, heroin, methamphetamines, hallucinogens, or ecstasy, according to the report

Nearly half of all high schoolers are “persistently sad or hopeless,” the report found, symptoms used as a proxy to measure depression. Numbers are notably higher for girls, queer youth and students of color.

The feelings, particularly when they are the result of sexual violence, hold the power to have lifelong impacts: “young people who feel hopeless about their future are more likely to engage in behaviors that put them at risk for HIV, STDs, and unintended pregnancy,” the report states.

Only about half of teens, according to the 2021 findings, used a condom the last time they had sex. And only 5% were screened for STIs within the last year.

Yet many of the challenges facing young people today, Houry added, are in fact “preventable.”

Schools can revamp health curricula to educate young people about sexual consent and managing emotions; encourage school-based clubs like Gay Straight Alliances; and increase mental health training for teachers, peers and staff.

Healthy relationship and bystander training programs like Green Dot can reduce harm and stigma in talking about sexual or romantic violence, CDC officials said.

The CDC and advocates also encouraged families to look for warning signs associated with suicide and regularly ask young people about their feelings or concerns.

“I wish my family knew these resources and what to look for earlier,” national PTA President Anna King tearfully said during the media briefing. King lost a niece to suicide nearly five years ago.

“These conversations will help parents learn how to help their child and figure out what’s going on emotionally, building their ability to cope with life’s stressors and show them their feelings matter,” King said. “It also helps them to understand that they’re not alone.”

If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Additional resources are available at SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources. For LGBTQ mental health support, you can contact The Trevor Project’s toll-free support line at 866-488-7386.

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

LA County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo announces multimillion dollar partnership with Hazel Health at Benjamin O. Davis Middle School in Compton, California on Feb. 2. (Courtesy of LACOE)

With mental health issues mounting, a new partnership throughout Los Angeles County schools is poised to offer licensed counseling to its more than one million K-12 students.

All 80 districts within the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s jurisdiction will have the authority to opt-in to services with Hazel Health, a telehealth provider that has partnered with districts nationwide to connect families with licensed care quickly and at no cost.

Their virtual therapy model removes some key barriers to accessing care from the equation, including insurance coverage, provider shortages or waitlists and transportation. Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second largest district, and Compton Unified have already opted in.

In California, nearly 70% of youth who’ve experienced a major depressive episode did not receive any treatment — 10% above national averages. 

However, the new partnership is not designed to support students long-term.

“Each student can typically expect an intake visit plus six weeks to two months of weekly sessions before being discharged from the Hazel program,” a spokesperson for Hazel Health told The 74 by email. “The program is short-term—if your child needs long-term mental health support, we will help identify and connect you with options in your community.”

The $24 million dollar partnership with L.A. Care Health Plan, Health Net, and the L.A. County Department of Mental Health is part of the state’s urgent push to address the youth mental health crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic and social media. In addition, racial unrest and discrimination is particularly taxing students of color, who make up 86% of Los Angeles county schools. 

Los Angeles Unified has not yet finalized their implementation plan. It may take up to twelve weeks before sessions begin, according to a spokesperson from the county’s education office.

In December, some Compton Unified students began to access at-home services, and as of last week, two district schools began offering telehealth visits onsite. By March, the district plans to offer space for students to use at every campus.

Half of mental illnesses start by age 14, and suicide is now the second-leading cause of death for children. Other school districts already partnered with Hazel include Clark County, Nevada’s largest, and Duval County Public Schools in Florida. 

While a similar teletherapy offering in Colorado enables youth 12 and up to confidentially sign up and meet with therapists on their own, Los Angeles’s partnership with Hazel will require students to be referred by a parent, guardian or school staff member. 

A wellness room at a Compton middle school where therapy sessions can be held (Courtesy of LACOE)

Over half of Hazel Health’s mental health providers are people of color and over 40% are bilingual. When necessary, clinicians use Language Line to facilitate sessions in students’ preferred language.  

“Hazel Health aligns the hiring of therapists to the demographics of its partner districts,” said Van Nguyen, Public Information Officer for the LA County Office of Education. 

The company launched its first mental health visits in the fall of 2021, which range coping mechanisms and tools for general anxiety disorder, depression, academic stress and bullying. Presently, about 22 clinical mental health positions are vacant.

“Hazel’s hiring practices involve looking for trauma-trained clinicians with deep expertise in children and teens, as well as specific passion areas and specialties (such as LGBTQ). Getting the match right is critical,” Drew Mathias, vice president of marketing, told The 74. 

Their clinicians most often use cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing and dialectical behavior therapy approaches. 

Founded in 2015 by a pediatric emergency room doctor, K-12 educator, and former Apple software engineer, Hazel Health offers physical and mental health care visits to children at over 3,000 public schools.

Tyre Nichols practicing on a skate ramp in a decade-old video captured by childhood friends in Sacramento, California. Curriculum experts at Facing History recommend talking with young people about Nichols’s life — not only the way he was killed. (Austin Robert/YouTube)

At dinner with their families, on school buses, and in their own rooms, young people nationwide have witnessed the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols, whether they meant to or not.

As students enter classrooms in the days after a widely publicized funeral in Memphis, experts say educators have a responsibility to acknowledge their anger, grief and sadness — particularly as more than ever before experience symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Nichols, who grew up in Sacramento enmeshed in skater culture and with a love for photography, was father to a 4-year-old son. On Jan. 7 he was pulled over in a traffic stop and severely beaten for three minutes by five police officers on since-released body camera footage. The officers were part of a since-disbanded special unit that policed his Memphis neighborhood. Nichols was unarmed and minutes from home. Three days later, he died in the hospital at age 29. The officers will appear for an arraignment on Feb. 17, charged with second-degree murder.

But Dimitry Anselme, executive program director with the global nonprofit Facing History & Ourselves, said it is now critical to explore Nichols’s life and humanity with young people.

“We don’t want to stay only in death. We’ve lost Tyre. What you want to begin to help [young people] think is, what’s our response? What are the ways by which we want to engage with one another to move to justice?” said Anselme, who oversees workshops and training with educators and staff internationally, guiding constructive and psychologically safe ways to discuss violence and injustice with young learners.

Paramount in this immediate aftermath, according to Anselme, is to offer ways for students to reflect on their emotions like journaling, and emphasize the message: it’s ok not to watch.

While graphic images, including photos of Emmett Till’s open casket and Nichols’s hospital bed shared by family, have forced Americans to contend with extreme anti-Black violence, exposure to such imagery can trigger psychological and physical reactions, such as disrupted eating, sleeping and bed-wetting in children. This is particularly for Black children who may identify with Tyre, experts told Capital B.

In conversation with The 74, Anselme explains how Nichols’s life can be explored alongside critical moments in American history, why inviting young people to reflect is critical in this political moment, and best practices gleaned from teaching violent history and genocide.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

The 74: What have you been hearing from educators and students in the wake of Tyre Nichols’s death and the recent release of body camera footage? 

Anselme: Emotions. A lot of students and teachers are sad. They are frustrated. For many of them, this will not be the first time that they have to have a conversation in the classroom around an episode of police violence or police brutality, particularly targeted toward the loss of a life of a young Black man. So there is a sense of déjà vu and people are really exhausted. Episodes like this contribute to the sense of sadness and powerlessness, like, ‘Oh my god, how many more lessons can I possibly do on gun violence, or the loss of life of a young black man, or another police brutality incident?’ It feels like it is nonstop.

The other thing we’re hearing is ‘I don’t want to keep my young people mired in grief, anger.’ It’s not that they’re looking for ‘give me something positive’, but it’s what can I give to young people that does not keep them in a sense of powerlessness, especially in the moment? The kind of national dialogue that’s going on in the country, the incessant fights around racial justice, give young people a sense of change does not happen.

Teachers are looking for ways — I call it teaching for democracy. That is to say, democracies are not perfect. They require that we remain vigilant, that we don’t tire out, that we don’t lose hope, optimism and a sense of engagement. So a lot of our resources are around how do you bring students back to core democratic values? We always select a moment of fracture, usually brought on by violence, with examples of how to repair, rebuild, and what we call choosing to participate. So you don’t just stay in that moment of history that is sad, but you are looking at ways that ordinary people repair. That’s how we teach the civil rights movement, the Reconstruction period, the Holocaust, Armenian Genocide. Here’s the moment of fracture, here are the range of responses that human beings have taken on, look at all the ways by which accountability happens, attempts to have national conversation about memory and legacies, and how to rebuild.

I think a lot of teachers at Facing History know that the work is really around inspiring young people. To say, channel your grief, your sadness, into participation. It’s not to minimize the loss of Tyre. But, increasingly, our sense is we need to provide resources so young people can think about themselves, their rights and responsibilities when they live in a democracy, and how they can sustain civic agency.

How might educators foster discussion in a way that it doesn’t feel, as you said, like another moment of hopelessness?

First, you move to history. So let’s use a moment that is not in the here and now, because it’s going to give us emotional distance. You don’t necessarily need to use a police brutality moment — I might say, let’s talk about the murder of Emmett Till. It’s an act of injustice, and it raises all the conversations that we want to have about the value of Black life, around the way that violence is being used to circumvent or to prevent coexistence, our ability to live. It keeps them focused on the larger themes: democracy, civic engagement, civic participation.

One of the things that we get from looking at Emmett Till is the way that his mother responds to his death, the way that she will inspire a civil rights movement that was already taking place. That’s the lesson you want kids to take. We don’t want to stay only in death. We’ve lost Tyre. What you want to begin to help them think is, what’s our response? What are the ways by which we want to engage with one another to move to justice?

On Wednesday, we witnessed Tyre being laid to rest in Memphis. How can educators today, tomorrow next week, acknowledge that grief?

We train a lot around the use of journals so that young people can capture, ‘what do I think before I speak?’ These are moments where I would call educators to look at our civil discussion guide or a reflective classroom guide because I would be inviting kids to be writing, journaling, reflecting on the emotions they are feeling. What’s in their mind? Reflect on the multiple identities of Tyre Nichols that we’ve learned about him: a young Black man who was also a skater, a young father. I would be inviting young people to think about him and reflect on his humanity. Rather than again, focusing on the pain, honor him. Recognize him as a human, and let’s celebrate the loss of the human life that we’ve lost.

What I’m telling you is also the way we’ve learned to teach around genocide. We use survivor testimonies to give you a sense of the individual. Who was this person? Where do they live? What kind of relationships do they have? I keep you centered on the human person that is lost. So it’s not just a number, 6 million. No, it’s about the story of Greta. It’s the story of Rena. It’s a story of this one person living in just one moment in time. I would honor Tyre in that way. Write about his identities, his multiple ones. Do you have friends who are skaters?

Could we spend a moment reflecting on the technology aspect of this? The images of his killing can be somewhat unescapable. You might be at a restaurant with your family as CNN plays the footage on loop. How has your guidance adapted to that reality?

It’s really, really difficult. I went on a news blackout last Friday. I’m raising two young Black men and I said to all my colleagues and friends: news blackout. I definitely don’t want to see the video. I don’t want to overwhelm ourselves with images just because of the media environment we all live in. At Facing History, in all of our work for the last 47 years, when we teach about genocide, we always invite teachers not to overfocus on the images of death camps, of dead bodies. We don’t encourage that kind of teaching. Usually there’s a desire like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna show them these awful images and bang it on the head so they can understand what happened.’ We say it’s not going to be effective. And the reason why we don’t think that’s effective is because that really traumatizes kids and it leaves them in a space in the space of pain.

In this current social media environment, we would encourage teachers to encourage students not to be watching those videos, to avoid them or empower yourself. You can write a statement on your Instagram or your Facebook: tell your friends and colleagues that you’ve chosen not to watch the video, that you would love it if they could avoid sharing it with you or putting it up themselves. Give them tools where they themselves can be empowered to sort of communicate that. It’s okay not to watch the video to relive the images. It’s okay to change the channel. Shut the TV off. It’s not like you’re minimizing are you running away from what happened. No, you’re fully aware of what happened. What you’re doing is self-care. Protect yourself.

We cannot use the classroom and materials to cheapen, to use violence and death to get students’ engagement or attention. As an educator, I would say you should feel free never to utilize those videos and images. A lot of entertainment is centered on abuse and violence of Black bodies. We have it in sports, music, movies, law, literature, or history. I like to think we have a responsibility as educators not to participate in this.

Students and educators, particularly Black families, have felt this kind of vicarious trauma many times in recent history. Why does the conversation have to be continued, not a one-off lesson, particularly as we are amid a youth mental health crisis?

We are social beings, but we also have emotional lives that need to be recognized, realized and affirmed. I don’t think one does an educational service if you’re working with people of color, in particular Black students, to not acknowledge the emotional toll, the trauma that the content that we look at in classrooms will bring. It has to be something that’s perpetual, but you don’t want to do this in a way that is re-traumatizing or deepening the trauma.

You want to end lessons by bringing attention to issues of identity, to collective identity, group membership, legacies, and then the civic participation piece. You are trying to balance giving space for the emotion to be recognized, but also engage a larger conversation about human behavior. As young Black men they are human beings, they have empathy for the struggle and emotion and injustice of other groups. So that moment when they are engaging with their own trauma and frustration, it is also a moment to help them see: you have experienced this, other groups have experienced this. So what kind of human societies do we want to create? What does coexistence mean? When you do that, you provide them with the vocabulary and mitigate the pain — I’m not alone, there’s something larger about the way human societies operate, there are larger dynamics.

We have a lot of this conversation on staff at Facing History. I do not think it is fair for us as educators to teach young Black kids, you were victimized in 1619 and you are victimized today in 2023. If that is the only way we teach American history to Black kids, we’re doing them a disservice. Because if you teach it that way, you don’t teach them Fannie Lou Hamer. You don’t teach them Frederick Douglass. You don’t teach Harriet Tubman.

Because in fact, throughout the history of violent oppression and marginalization, many Black folks chose to respond to the pain they were having by engaging. Harriet Tubman comes up with a way to help free other enslaved people; Frederick Douglass plays a key role in the key constitutional amendment that everyone in America today enjoys. That’s the amendment that gives you immigration laws that we have today that a variety of other people are using and enjoying. So I want African American kids to know the America that we have today comes directly out of the Black experience, pain and trauma. We’ve created this society of democracy and freedom, not only for ourselves, but for other groups. That’s where you help balance the pain and fracture. I don’t think it’s fair to just keep Black students in this idea of perpetual victimhood because in fact, the history tells something else. We do not do a good job in history education of helping kids see that.

We could think for a moment about the challenge and changes to the AP African American Studies curriculum, book bans removing Toni Morrison and other historic Black authors’ work. How does that context impact your recommendations and how you speak with educators? 

The reality is teachers are already finding ways to resist this on a daily basis. What I would say to educators is to continue to focus on the work that they’re doing, identifying resources and moments that are important for students. We have some shared democratic values, I think if we hold on to these, we will survive this particular political movement. There have been efforts at other moments where, for example, you couldn’t teach about LGBT experiences in the classroom. With the work of activism, we were able to create the space. We created the Black Studies movement, an ethnic studies movement, an Asian Studies movement in the country.

It’s very scary what’s happening. I used to be a teacher and a principal. I feel so much for folks who are in the classroom today, or for school principals who are just overwhelmed. I’m hearing things in Florida about doing a book review at every school. You can imagine the amount of human time and labor it’s going to take to do this. I was born in Haiti and I grew up in the Congo. My formative years were in two societies shaped by dictatorship. This is not democratic behavior. I’m very comfortable saying that; I have lived in non-democratic societies.

This comes back to the civic agency piece. If we lose hope if we think somehow, oh, well, that’s it, this political movement doing all this book banning has won. No, they have not won and are in violation of the American spirit and democratic values. So what does that mean? We redouble our effort and our commitment to democratic values to believe that we have a freedom of conscience, that young people have freedom of conscience, they should have access to a wide range of ideas, that we are all as educators going to defend a marketplace of ideas. The idea of a marketplace of ideas is as American as apple pie. Use that as an inspiration to students. None of these bills prevent me from teaching about the Declaration of Independence; use those moments to highlight key American values. How do we preserve them today?

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Eamonn Fitzmaurice/LA School Report/iStock

With the nation’s schools facing acute teacher shortages, the GAO criticized the U.S. Department of Education’s strategy for not adequately addressing the crisis and guiding states’ in how to attract and retain more educators.

As teachers nationwide face “an increasingly disrespectful and demanding school workplace culture,” and compensation concerns, the GAO charged in a report released last month the education department failed to establish a timeline and measures to gauge progress in resolving regional teacher shortages.

The challenge of cost of entry into the profession and concerns of return on investment, the GAO report found, is also significantly straining the country’s supply of teachers. Compounding the financial reality, many candidates fear being overworked and mistreated.

“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture—and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide,” the GAO stated, pulling data from focus groups held throughout the pandemic.

Shortages, the agency confirmed, are most concentrated in urban and rural areas, schools predominantly serving non-white students, and key subjects like science and foreign languages.

Without clearer policy and benchmarks to address the crisis, “the effect of its efforts will be unknown and [the department] will miss an important opportunity… to help ensure that all children have access to high-quality teachers…”

The GAO’s recommendations include raising public awareness about the value of teachers to combat negative perceptions of the profession; and providing information to states on how to address recruitment and retention challenges, via competitive grants and research-backed guidance on residencies, for example.

Researchers and federal policy analysts who study teacher workforces said the report confirms their understanding of vacancies and puts more pressure on the Department of Education to inform state policy.

But it will take more than just a public awareness campaign to combat negative perceptions of teaching: Addressing the systemic challenges that contribute is key, the experts said.

“School culture and support I think can tie into perceptions of teaching,” said Michael DiNapoli, deputy director of federal policy with the Learning Policy Institute, adding that “smaller class sizes, facilities that are up to date (and) supportive school leadership” will all make a difference in the lives of teachers.

Key Department programs that elevate pipelines and cut down cost barriers for those looking to lead classrooms have gone without updates for years, DiNapoli said. The TEACH Grant program, for example, which provides scholarships to teacher candidates, was last updated 15 years ago.

“We’ve seen a whole generation of students go through K-12 with no updates,” DiNapoli said, adding, for instance, that the teacher loan forgiveness program also hasn’t been updated since 2007 amid climbing college tuition.

The department may have limited power to change trends “overnight” given that states control their own policy, said Chad Aldeman, policy director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. But what they can do, he said, is utilize their position to guide strategy that can make the difference in addressing acute shortages.

“They have a bully pulpit they can use and they can collect better data,” Alderman said. “If they pushed harder on the other things around licensure, compensation, things that policy actually can change, I think that is where the bully pulpit can matter from the federal lens.”

The Department will “continue to give this area priority attention,” but did not confirm it will act on the GAO’s recommendations, Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Washington said in response included in the report. A Department commission to examine how to elevate the profession is pending, proposed in their current budget now under Senate appropriations review.

Tony Thurmond/Flickr

Incumbent Tony Thurmond has won another bid to serve as California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, leading the vote over opponent Lance Christensen by about 2 to 1 as of midday Wednesday with about 42% of districts reporting.

Thurmond will guide California’s K-12 schools through a period of academic recovery and curricula reform in math and reading, along with Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislature.

The results come as no surprise given Thurmond’s lead in the June primaries that left the Democratic party-backed candidate just 5 points shy of the majority needed to avoid Tuesday’s runoff altogether.

His office has received criticism for lengthy school closures — California’s students learned virtually for over a year, raising concerns about technology access for low-income families and widespread learning loss.

• Related: Race preview — Despite COVID backlash, Thurmond sails toward second term as California schools chief

And though the four-year post is nonpartisan, the education and culture issues that divide Democrats and Republicans seemed to drive modest support for conservative opponent Christensen, who ran on a pledge to put parents at the helm of policy.

Christensen, a policy director for a conservative think tank and former Republican staffer in the State Senate, also advocated to expand school choice and continually criticized the “parasitic” California Teachers Association and hard-fought Ethnic Studies curriculum. His campaign raised $159,000 compared to the nearly $5 million by Thurmond.

Expanding access to mental healthcare, high quality tutoring, free meals, teachers’ professional development and implicit bias training, and STEM learning opportunities were key tenets of Thurmond’s campaign headed into Tuesday’s vote.

Thurmond, who has served as California’s top schools official since 2019, has held various elected posts for 16 years including posts on Richmond’s city council, West Contra Costa County Unified school board, and California’s state assembly.

Eamonn Fitzmaurice / T74 / iStock

As the nation witnesses unprecedented declines in academic achievement, one of the largest education philanthropies has announced it will fund $1.1 billion in K-12 math initiatives over the next four years.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s investment marks the beginning of a decade-long strategy to prioritize math gains, particularly for Black, Latino and low-income students, making the subject its primary K-12 investment for the next decade.

The Foundation’s work in math is not new, but making it their top priority signals a major shift: from roughly 40% of its K-12 budget to 100% through 2026.

“Math helps students make sense of the world. It gives them critical thinking and problem solving skills they can use later as adults,” said Bob Hughes, director of the Gates Foundation’s K-12 program on a press call earlier this week.

“And even before the pandemic, too many students did not have equitable access to qualified math teachers, advanced coursework, high quality curriculum, tutoring or other resources necessary to master, enjoy and succeed at math.”

New programming will likely roll out next year, targeted in states with high numbers of Black, Latino and low-income students who disproportionately struggle with math: California, Florida, New York, and Texas.

Nationwide, the latest math scores from suggest the pandemic eliminated two decades of growth and exacerbated gaps along racial lines.

Such a setback will have long-term impacts on students’ economic and social mobility. Research has long-affirmed students who pass Algebra 1 by 9th grade, for instance, are twice as likely to graduate high school and eventually earn higher wages.

In efforts to flip the bleak script, the Foundation’s strategy includes focusing on elementary and middle schools and funding teacher preparation; research, along with culturally, socially relevant curricula and materials. In feedback sessions, parents told the Foundation their children want to know why math matters in their lives. To make the connection, Gates will prioritize applied statistics and data science-related math pathways in high school, courses that help students make sense of political polls and health risk assessment amid the pandemic.

To address historically persistent shortages of math teachers, the Foundation is backing alternative models to build up pipelines. Districts that Gates already partners with in western Texas are building residency programs — modeled after medical residencies, providing in-house preparation — for community members and staff to become licensed without the financial barriers of traditional programs. In Baltimore, lead and early career teachers are paired up to support Algebra learning.

“We’re spreading the expertise, but also giving other teachers who might not be at that level the opportunity to come alongside and support in real time,” said Sonja Santileses, CEO of Baltimore City Schools. “…There are ways of inducting folks into mathematics teaching as well as looking at teaching not as just one teacher in front of the classroom anymore, which we’ve been talking about for years.”

Gates officials also anticipate efforts, like improving assessments or professional development, will benefit other subject areas.

“Improving math isn’t a pipe dream. We can create classrooms and instruction where everyone is good at math. So today is the beginning — much remains to be done,” Hughes said, adding more funding may be on the horizon, to be determined with the next budgeting cycle in 2026.

For now, financial resources will be shifted away from English language arts — historically about 20% of the K-12 budget — to fund more math initiatives, though the Foundation is working with other philanthropies to ensure funding in the humanities remains.

“We don’t want the entire field to follow us to math,” Hughes said. “We’re really hoping to go deep to understand what does the professional development need to look like around something as concrete as fractions … understand the barriers that young people or teachers face in enacting instructional visions and then use that to inform the entire field.”

The $1.1 billion for math, while comparable to recent funding for teacher effectiveness, is four times the amount dedicated to the Foundation’s controversial Common Core investment. Hughes said the experience reaffirmed the reality that every district has different assets and priorities to consider when adopting new curricula — it can’t be prescribed as a one-size-fits-all.

“We’re instead saying, we’re going to try to improve materials,” said Hughes, “give you greater insight into what’s effective for different types of students and populations, and work to ensure that you have those tools.”

Disclaimer: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides financial support to LA School Report‘s parent company, The 74.

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Illustration by Eamonn Fitzmaurice, photography by Marianna McMurdock/The 74

Ask a Boomer or Millenial what they think of Gen Zers and their observations are far from flattering: Overly sensitive, socialist, disengaged, dependent on technology.

But those stereotypes have little basis in reality, according to the book, Fight: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America, released earlier this year.

John Della Volpe, author and director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School, analyzed the generation’s stressors and biggest motivators — and found Zoomers are more action-oriented, politically engaged and optimistic than portrayed.

Zoomers show up at the polls in historic numbers, for instance, while experiencing higher rates of depression and anxiety than older peers. Young people in the U.S. have grown up in an era marked by record gun violence, the opioid epidemic, threats to fair elections, the pandemic, economic recession and police brutality, Della Volpe notes.

“Rather than melting … just kind of turning away, when you see all this chaos, which would be what a lot of people would expect,” Della Volpe told LA School Report’s parent company, The 74, “[Gen Z] has actually become more focused, more motivated, potentially more angry, and more concerned about creating justice, not just for themselves, but for all those who are vulnerable across the country.”

In 2021, 61% of Zoomers agreed the government should do more to reduce poverty; 64% agreed basic health insurance is a right, according to the Harvard Institute of Polling. Both rates are up about 20% when compared to 2015’s results from millennials.

And in the words of Alex, a Black high school student in the Midwest, Gen Zers “can be extremely effective leaders, as many of us have been educating ourselves on social issues for a lot of our lives.”

“We are more empathetic, tuned in to the news, and educated,” Alex told Della Volpe.

Zoomers are also painfully aware of the differences between themselves, born in the late 90s and early 2000s, and people born prior who would not have had the experience of fearing death at schools, theaters, or grocery stores.

“An older generation would not understand walking into a classroom and thinking about how easy it would be for someone to shoot it up,” said Grace, then 20, naming what she thinks older generations fundamentally misunderstand in one of Della Volpe’s focus groups. “The same daily weight on an adult’s shoulders over bills or taxes is what children feel about living or dying.”

Below, explore five myths media and older generations get wrong about Gen Z:

1. Myth: “Zoomers don’t show up at the polls”

In both the 2018 midterms and 2020 presidential election, Gen Z’s turnout broke records. When over a third of eligible young people cast a vote in 2018, it nearly doubled 2014’s rate.

John Della Volpe/St. Martin’s Press

Young voters, according to hundreds of focus group findings, are overwhelmingly eager to address some of society’s most pressing challenges.

“Because it’s my responsibility…to do everything I can to make the world even just a little bit better. Even if it’s not the world that I would like to see, I cannot in good conscience allow the status quo to continue,” a Gen Zer from Western Pennsylvania notes in the book, explaining why she’d vote despite not being fully supportive of Biden.

“…Clean and healthy environments, access to quality education, those are values that this generation just doesn’t compromise on,” Della Volpe said. “And currently, my perception is that there’s only one party developing solutions to address these issues, these systemic issues, including racial justice, policing, we can make a long list… any party that does not address those issues will become irrelevant in the future.”

John Della Volpe/St. Martin’s Press

2. Myth: “Gen Z is too soft or sensitive.”

There’s a perception that Zoomers “melt” under the pressure of the moment, perhaps because they are twice as likely as Americans over 30 to experience anxiety and depression — likely in part due to the social and political trauma they’ve experienced. They’ve experienced chaos without healing across divides for a common goal, Della Volpe explained.

53% say they had little interest in doing things; 48% had trouble concentrating; and 28% thought about self-harm or believed they’d be better off dead, according to a Harvard poll conducted over two-weeks in March 2021.

Simultaneously, there’s incredible empathy and resilience among young people eager to organize around social and political change, talk about mental health and “seek help and closure”, Della Volpe said, to find ways to thrive.

“I dropped out because the cause of my depression and anxiety was taking so much of my time that I wasn’t getting any work done,” Katherine, then 19, said in a focus group. “My new homeroom teacher was really, really supportive, and helped me…so I could actually get towards graduating… just having someone to talk to saved me.”

3. Myth: “Young people don’t want to have hard conversations.”

In the thousands of conversations Della Volpe has held with young people of varied demographics across the country, he cannot remember a single time the group turned contentious.

Often, he said, they found the meetings therapeutic.

“There are so many opportunities to have meaningful conversations about income inequality, climate, sexuality, racism…Search for those opportunities and try to engage, keep an open mind,” Della Volpe said. “Young people would welcome debates and different points of view.”

One way he imagined this happening more regularly in schools is to open up cafeterias, parking lots, or auditoriums for conversations or listening sessions where young people could vent, talk through what they’re witnessing in the world.

“The direction of the country is also a new weight and a new challenge to them. So it’s helpful for parents and teachers to look for opportunities to engage in those conversations, rather than run away from them,” he added.

4. Myth: “Gen Z is all liberal or socialist.”

Young people are not fully aligned politically. While a third support socialism broadly, only 15% identify as socialist. About 45% support capitalism — a rate that climbed to 54% among people shown a definition before sharing their opinion.

When shown definitions of traditional socialism, support dropped to 24%.

John Della Volpe/Harvard IOP and St. Martin’s Press

As one group of undergraduates explained, they’re looking for a form of capitalism that rewards everyone, not just the most privileged and wealthy. Zoomers look to learn from capitalist economies where healthcare and family are still prioritized, in places like Norway.

“While everyone’s becoming more progressive, there’s a sense of pragmatism and diversity that exists kind of below the surface,” Della Volpe said.

5. Myth: “Zoomers can’t deal with face-face interactions.”

“That’s because [they] have grown up behind a screen or with a smartphone in your hands. I don’t think that’s a zero sum game,” Della Volpe said of the assumption.

Growing up with unprecedented access to the internet created a generation both adept at technology and emotionally intelligent. Gen Zers are communicators, comfortable with the nuances of remote work, how to leverage social media and express emotion or share resources on TikTok.

“What I’ve found, especially my qualitative research, is this personal agency — this ability to not just speak in developing relationships with friends, but also to use your voice to speak out for justice,” Della Volpe said.

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Free therapy and professional coaching. $20,000 stipends. 

These are some of the incentives and supports aimed at preventing an exodus of principals and school administrators taking on pandemic stressors and the nation’s divisive climate. 

Focused on problem solving, self-care and leadership skills, a handful of nonprofits run by experienced educators have launched support and training programs to aid principals, particularly leaders of color who are underrepresented in the field and experiencing more job-related stress than their peers. 

Organizations are also recognizing a window of opportunity: recruiting and retaining principals of color to better match and support an increasingly diverse student population. Roughly 54% of U.S. public school students are Indigenous, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian or multiracial, while about 78% of principals are white. 

“‘How could this be done differently? How can we support you?’ We’re not hearing that conversation. It is ‘yes you did this, now do this on top of what you’re doing.’ And I think that is driving a lot of people out because you don’t feel like you can be human,” said TaraShaun Cain, executive director of the Black Principals Network. 

The group is one of several support networks that launched during the pandemic, as many leaders — faced with hostility from parents, death within their family, health concerns and working more hours than ever before alongside mental health challenges — have said they may leave imminently.

One new training program in Massachusetts is taking aim at the underlying cause of stress educators witness in tapped-out peers: The current role of principal has become unsustainable. And if reimagining school structures isn’t a part of training for the next generation of principals, school systems will likely continue to fail and overtax leaders.

Recognizing the emotional toll of leading schools in the current climate, the National Fellowship for Black and Latino Male Educators partnered with BetterHelp, an online mental health service platform, to provide leaders free phone, text or video counseling. 

Several are extending support beyond seated principals. Recruiting the next generation of school leaders is becoming more urgent, as one New York teacher leader noticed. 

“There’s a lot more hesitancy,” said Margarita Lopez, a teacher and instructional coach for other educators at Urban Assembly Maker, a career and technical school in New York City. 

Lopez, who does not know anyone else currently interested in leadership, is pursuing the shift to leadership out of frustration, eager to change current systems that have left teachers unsupported, without meaningful feedback or professional development. 

“I saw it as a call to action for myself…I’ve seen a lot of people that I’ve taught with leave education altogether,” Lopez said. “I’m seeing more of that, than people wanting to stay in education and become a school leader.”

To make the role more attractive, at least one program is baking in opportunities to reshape school design while bearing the cost of training to make the career accessible and enticing to a more diverse pool of applicants.

Launched by Springpoint, a nonprofit dedicated to reimagining high school, and Boston-based philanthropy The Barr Foundation, the Transformative Leaders Massachusetts program is recruiting high school principals to better reflect the state’s diverse student population. 

For example, they may look to recruit multilingual leaders to support the state’s immigrant families, particularly from Brazil, Cape Verde the Azores and mainland Portugal. Massachusetts has the largest share of foreign-born Portuguese speakers in the country.

The tuition-free leadership program will include coaching on how to encourage staff and student identity development, competency-based learning, and managing teams — thinking through the system and volume of direct reports that principals manage daily, for example.

About 10 teachers will begin the pilot two-year development program this summer — each participant will earn $20,000 stipends on top of their existing school salaries.

“There has been an addition of work without compensation. And for us, this is really a statement of valuing their time… this should not be something that educators go into debt for. This should be something that is a pathway that feels clear and open,” said Lauren Bassi, director of leadership and school design at Springpoint and former English teacher.

Breaking down the financial barrier for leaders to enter the profession while creating support has also been a priority for the National Aspiring Principals Fellowship, child of the popular leadership training program New Leaders, Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College. 

New principal fellows can complete a certificate-only program for $10,000, or earn a Master’s simultaneously for $20,000, and receive support to apply for grant funding. Fellows can pursue licensed positions in 37 states and Washington, D.C., thanks to recent state approvals, and will ultimately join a New Leaders alumni network of over 8,000. 

“When we talk about fundamentally changing what is happening in education in our country, this is what we mean: transforming the system so that every school is led by an equity-focused principal with the highest expectations for every child,” J. Fidel Turner, Dean of the Clark Atlanta School of Education, said in a press release.

New Leaders’s latest fellowship will focus on building the pipeline of principals of color to better reflect and serve student populations. Principals of color create better academic outcomes for students of color — who make up the majority of K-12 schools nationally — and are more effective than their peers at recruiting and retaining teachers of color, according to synthesis of over 200 research studies.

The next few years could present an opportunity to better diversify the field and encourage better outcomes for students of color, disproportionately impacted by pandemic learning, said New Leaders CEO Jean Desravines.

“We are not saying that we should transition out existing white principals. What we’re saying is there’s a recognition that there will be significant turnover in the field, a mass exodus because of mental health issues, because of COVID, because of the political environment,” Desravines told The 74. “It will be a missed opportunity if we are not being intentional and strategic about how we build the pipeline in a way that ensures there’s far greater representation than there’s been in the past.” 

Desravines added that principals, particularly those without supportive district leadership, have been feeling “incredibly lonely.” There are about 11 and 9% of Black and Latino principals nationally, respectively. Some may be the only leader of color in their district or county — experiencing a mix of racist hostility or taking on more emotional labor to support marginalized students than their peers. 

Black Principal Network’s Executive Director Cain, for instance, built her career in her hometown of Chicago alongside many Black educators and leaders. But she knows that some, in places like Madison, Wisconsin, are the only ones in their district or county fiercely advocating for the “babies that look like me.” 

It’s become necessary to share strategies across state lines, so that leaders who would previously have never crossed paths, can share lessons learned like how to advance an equity initiative or deal with a combative school board. 

“There’s [professional] development needed, but what I learned is there are some internal obstacles that our guys face, too,” said Keith Brooks, founder of the National Fellowship for Black and Latino Male Educators, the group offering free access to BetterHelp therapy. “Imposter syndrome — just understanding their worth or value, or internalized racism, and being able to show up as their authentic self… that was one of the biggest things that was getting in our guys’ ways.” 

The Black Principal’s Network recognized a similar need near the beginning of the pandemic and widespread protests against racism and police violence. What began as a Facebook group has morphed into an online community of over 350; principals participate in self-care, sustainability, and self-discovery programming. 

While the Fellowship and Network specifically advocate for principals of color, the strategies and support offer a roadmap for the broader population of leaders. 

“Sometimes you feel like being vulnerable or taking time means that you are abandoning, or it is a sign of weakness…we have to change that narrative,” Cain said. “We have to create a space where our leaders can actually get refilled and be recharged beyond what we have right now.”

Allison Shelley for EDUimages

Despite constant learning disruption, some U.S. schools achieved record-breaking graduation rates and student engagement during the pandemic, according to a new national report.

In one Massachusetts school, a midday “office hours” block became permanent — time for students to vent, unwind, and deep focus. In a Colorado school district, school-run food drives doubled as a chance to give vulnerable families tech devices and curricula updates. And in New York City, one assistant principal knocked on doors to engage students who’d gone silent.

The practices are some of the hundreds of successful pandemic-era strategies shared by 70 schools in What Made Them So Prepared?, Next Generation Learning Challenges’ recent collaborative research study.

“It would have been easy as we were designing distance and hybrid in-person learning for 2020-21, to rotate all students through in-person instruction, giving all of them the same amount of reduced time on campus,” said Sarah Chostner of California’s Envision Education charter network.

“Instead, we are seizing this opportunity to center our most marginalized students, dramatically increase teacher capacity, and advance student well-being and academic achievement.”

Spotlighting the many lessons learned in the last two years, the report identified trends that made it easier for schools to weather the challenges of the pandemic: students and adults shared agency over decisions; built healthy school culture and strong relationships; and were willing to change systems, like academic supports and technology.

Three schools and districts in particular made it their mission to prevent students, families and staff from disengaging:

Urban Assembly Maker Academy

A public vocational high school of just under 500 in New York City, Urban Assembly Maker Academy in Lower Manhattan is a tightnight community. When March 13, 2020 came and went without guidance from the Department of Education, staff took matters into their own hands and drove remote learning devices to families over the weekend.

The move was the first of many quick pivots and adjustments enabling their highest-ever graduation rate, 94 percent, mid-pandemic.

The school scaled down content to a few key necessities for the close of the 2019-2020 school year to avoid piling on academic stress to the health and financial stressors of the pandemic.

“[It] allowed students to understand what success was going to look like and allowed teachers to narrow their planning and limit the content that they had to do — slow down and go deeper into fewer things and let students drive at their own pace,” said former principal Luke Bauer.

Students were already familiar with the concept as the Urban Assembly Maker prioritized such “mastery” learning for years.

And for three Fridays each month, school volunteers and the assistant principal would knock on family’s doors to connect with those who had stopped logging on or participating. “This had a real positive impact on those who had disconnected — it’s easy to hide so it was great to be seen,” said Bauer.

“We were always trying to monitor how many kids we were in contact with. Tracking who might have dropped out and who they were in connection with – making sure we had a system to keep us all informed about where kids were,” Bauer added.

Uxbridge High School

For the first six months of pandemic learning at Uxbridge High School in southeast Massachusetts, students were as much a part of restructuring as administrators.

“We were constantly dipsticking our kids’ emotional state of mind — how busy they thought they were, did they feel like they needed to connect with someone, were there areas they could improve?” said principal Michael Rubin.

The feedback prompted the creation of an “office hours” block, for connecting with each other and deciding exactly how to use their time.

The school constantly reimagined how schooltime was spent — because a hybrid schedule limited in-person connection with students, classes focused on more engaging projects and lessons. Reading long texts aloud, for example, stopped — students would do that on their own time.

Even in terms of graduation — Uxbridge made timelines flexible for students. Two continued studies over the summer and three who had started the year as juniors made up coursework throughout the year.

“We did not lose any seniors. Every senior who started the year graduated,” Rubin said.

And to support staff tasked with providing two weeks of lesson plans in case of quarantine, 10 days of professional development were provided. Teachers could use the time as they needed — no mandatory sessions or all-day workshops.

“The school deliberately constructs an adult learning culture to parallel its student learning culture—and extends that adult learning culture to include parents and caregivers as key learning resources,” Rubin said.

St. Vrain Valley Schools

A “high-tech” district of over 32,000 just northwest of Denver, St. Vrain Valley Schools immediately ramped up community engagement in March 2020. Food banks, two resource centers, and seven community wifi hotspots were set up, along with 3,000 iPads for elementary school families and individual hotspots for students’ homes.

Their mission became, “serving whole families and the whole community, not just the kids.” Distributing half a million meals, “helped us communicate with our most vulnerable families. Those getting meals were also getting packets, devices, advice, resources. That’s how we found the families who needed the supports,” said Jackie Kapushion, deputy superintendent for the district, which just set a new record for graduation: 90 percent.

The district also set out to redefine what student engagement looked like. While they tracked attendance, a central team, “trained principals to work with teachers to gauge student involvement. Were they just logging in, or were they attending with zoom cameras on and participating in class and finishing assignments?” Kapushion added.

By the end of the year,  between 96 and 98 percent of students were participating.

Their advice to other school leaders: “Go out to the community. Talk with them about their needs and the state of the district.”

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

Alberto Carvalho (Sergi Alexander / Getty Images)

Alberto Carvalho, Miami-Dade’s long-time, charismatic and controversial schools chief, was selected Thursday by the Los Angeles Unified school board as its next superintendent.

An advocate of school choice, nontraditional schools and known champion of undocumented student rights, Carvalho, 57, has run Miami’s schools for more than a decade. 

Carvalho’s sometimes unusual reform tactics have been credited for Miami-Dade’s rising high school graduation rate, now about 89 percent — about 30 percent higher than rates the year prior to his tenure. 

His aggressive approach to school reform may be welcome in Los Angeles, a system struggling with declining enrollments, student mental health and overall learning loss.  

Here are four things to know about the man set to head up the nation’s second largest district: 

1. Carvalho has spent his entire career in the Miami-Dade school system, starting as a high school science teacher in the 1980s.  

Originally on track to become a doctor, he accepted a teaching job in his early 20s and “the bug infected me,” he told the 74.

In his 13 year tenure as superintendent, he’s pushed for the expansion of charter and magnet schools throughout Miami and encouraged families to use publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools. 

The “privatization” of the district, and its hefty payouts to expand school security, have garnered national scrutiny for years over concerns that they’ve siphoned funds from existing, traditional schools.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez (L) and Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho (R) visit a K-8 school on August 24, 2018. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

“We are now working in an educational environment that is driven by choice. I believe that is a good thing. We need to actually be engaged in that choice movement. So if you do not ride that wave, you will succumb to it. I choose not to,” he once said of his stance.

The academic success of his districts’ nontraditional schools is a reminder of how, as he summed up in a 2015 conversation with The 74, “one size fits none.”

From 2017 to 2019, no schools in his district were marked as failing by Florida’s Department of Education. Carvalho called the rankings, a first for the district, “his proudest moment.” 

2. He’s not a stranger to public confrontations, this year taking on Florida Gov. DeSantis over mask mandates. 

This summer, while Florida COVID-19 hospitalizations rose, Gov. Ron DeSantis threatened to withhold school board members’ and administrators’ salaries who defied his executive order banning mask mandates. 

Carvalho balked. “At no point shall I allow my decision to be influenced by a threat to my paycheck, a small price to pay considering the gravity of this issue and the potential impact to the health and well-being of our students and dedicated employees,” he said in a statement to CBS Miami. 

It wasn’t the first time he’d publicly challenged state or federal leaders in efforts to protect students in Miami-Dade. In 2012, he threatened to resign if Daniela Pelaez, a North Miami valedictorian, was deported per a judge’s order. 

“I took a position then, I stood with the students,” he told The 74. 

Pelaez was ultimately not deported, and President Obama’s executive order protecting undocumented DREAMers from deportation was enacted just a few months later. 

Alberto Carvalho, second from left, celebrates after Miami-Dade won the 2012 Broad Prize for Urban Education on October 23, 2012 in New York City. (John Moore / Getty Images)

3. For Carvalho, student immigrant rights are personal. He grew up in Portugal and came to NYC as an undocumented immigrant in his teens.

“I remember landing in New York City, JFK International Airport, and the rest is history,” Carvalho told The 74 in 2018.

Carvalho left his home in Portugal as a teen, just after becoming the first in his family to finish high school, in pursuit of higher education and financial freedom.

He arrived without knowing English as an undocumented immigrant, at times experiencing homelessness, working as a busboy and construction worker in NYC and South Florida.

In 2017, as President Trump’s administration firmly stood against undocumented immigration, Carvalho banned ICE from Miami-Dade’s “sanctuary schools” — a stark contrast to the county’s policy to detain undocumented immigrants.

Many of the district’s students emigrated as children from Haiti, Brazil, Guatemala, Cuba and Mexico.

“Over my dead body will any federal entity enter our schools to take immigration actions against our kids,” he declared on television at the time. 

4. In 2018, he was slated to run NYC schools and turned the offer down — on live TV.

After weeks of courtship by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called him “a world-class educator with an unmatched track record of success,” Carvalho stunned the nation after he rejected the offer during a televised Miami school board meeting. 

In a familiar flair for the dramatic, he took an extended pause from the live broadcast, returning to tearfully declare that he’d stay with Miami-Dade. 

“I am breaking an agreement between adults to honor an agreement and a pact I have with the children of Miami,” he announced during the emergency board meeting, admitting he’d received a supportive wave of texts and voicemails from Florida families the night before the announcement. 

Alberto Carvalho is hugged after publicly rejecting a job offer to become head of the New York City schools on March 1, 2018. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

The decision came as a shock to NYC media and politicians, given the lengthy search process and previous indications he’d accept the coveted role to lead schools in the nation’s largest district.

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

But early fall undergraduate enrollment data suggest “no signs of recovery,” with the nation’s public universities historically serving low-income students of color hit hardest, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Across 2- and 4-year public and private nonprofit institutions, numbers continue to decline nationwide, now 6.5 percent below pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

And key public institutions, such as California’s Community Colleges, Pennsylvania’s State Universities, and the State University of New York system, are experiencing the worst declines.

First-year enrollment at community colleges for the 2021-22 academic year is 20.9 percent behind fall 2019. Total undergraduate enrollment at community colleges is 14.1 percent behind. In contrast, 4-year private nonprofit colleges experienced a 1.2 percent drop from 2019 to 2021.

Highly selective, elite schools are the only ones to rebound, netting gains in undergrad enrollment about 1.4 percent above fall 2019 levels.

Roughly 8.4 million students and 50 percent of higher education institutions are reflected in the National Student Clearinghouse’s report, which includes data collected through September 23. While subgroup trends may change as more institutions report, the research center doesn’t expect the overall picture to shift drastically.

Here are five key findings from the October report:

1. There are 6.5% fewer undergraduates enrolled this year than in 2019.

The declines seen last year have persisted. Overall enrollment has dropped 3.2 percent, following 2020’s 3.3 percent drop.

Four states saw declines higher than two times this national average: California, Indiana, Mississippi and West Virginia. New Hampshire saw more gains than any other state — the outlier now has 7.9 percent more undergraduates enrolled than in 2019.

2. 22.3% fewer Black first-years are enrolled than in 2019, the biggest decline of any ethnic/racial group.

National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

When looking at total undergraduate enrollment, beyond just first-years, there are 11 percent fewer Black students enrolled than the year prior to the pandemic. COVID-19 disproportionately affected Black Americans, whose families experienced some of the highest death rates. 

White and Native American or Indigenous students experienced the second and third highest declines.

12.7 percent fewer Native American or Indigenous undergraduate students are enrolled overall. However there are 21 percent more Native students, and 1 percent more Latino students, enrolled at private nonprofit universities than in 2019.

3. First-year classes are 12.3% smaller than pre-pandemic levels, and at community colleges, 20.8% smaller.

Public community colleges experienced the worst declines in freshman enrollment. Compared to all other institutions, they remain the most impacted sector, with overall enrollment declining 14.1 percent since the pandemic began. Their highest drops were from Black students (33.4 percent) and students aged 21-24 (21.4 percent).

4. Undergraduate programs have lost more men (9.3%) than women (5.3%) since 2019.

These declines have not been consistent across institution types — community colleges’ first-year classes saw women’s enrollment drop almost five times the rate of men, at a total of 10 percent.

Overall analysis from 2019 to 2021 shows more men have not enrolled in undergrad programs than women.

5. Less selective, public schools had higher declines than any other sector: 5.2% since last fall and 7.9% since the pandemic began.

More selective, private schools have been able to retain and recruit more students than their public, less selective peers. Many have also discussed some elite universities’ invested endowments grew larger during the pandemic, making the institutions more wealthy.

Public institutions’ starker declines may suggest barriers to college have been exacerbated by the pandemic, like financial and familial stressors.

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

Curriculum Associates

Despite promises to focus on the growing racial and income divide among the nation’s students, new fall testing data show academic gaps have worsened, falling heaviest on some of the most vulnerable children.

While education researchers have sounded the alarm for more than a year — that pandemic learning hurts low-income students and students of color most severely — recent scores suggest education solutions cannot come fast enough.

“More students are two or more grade levels below their actual grade level this fall than before the pandemic began,” according to Curriculum Associates’ November “Understanding Student Learning” report, which analyzed 3 million students’ fall 2021 i-Ready scores against averages from 2017-19.

“This means that teachers will not only have fewer students beginning the school year on grade level, but they will also have more students in need of intensive intervention and support.”

In both math and reading, fewer students are ready for grade level work — across all first through eighth graders.

Most concerning was the report’s finding that the pandemic has been especially detrimental for four groups: students beginning conceptual math in early middle school; students learning to read; students in predominantly Black and Latino schools; and students in lower-income zip codes.

This is the report I was tweeting about earlier this week. Things are not good. They may be getting a bit better as kids go back in person, but there are huge dips, and these are especially concentrated among those who were already behind, already underserved.

— Morgan Polikoff (@mpolikoff) November 4, 2021

More than half of third grade students in predominantly Black and Latino schools are testing two or more grade levels behind in math.

And for children learning to read in second and third grade, 7 to 9 percent more students are two or more grade levels behind as compared to pre-pandemic levels. These rates are even higher for students in lower-income and predominantly Black or Latino schools.

Here are four key findings from the report.

For some visuals, only third grade is spotlighted as researchers say it’s a pivotal year for student learning, and one that can help predict high school outcomes. 

1. Roughly half of third graders in predominantly Black and Latino schools are 2+ grade levels behind in math and reading — 11-17% more than pre-pandemic.

Curriculum Associates

Unfinished learning is most stark in lower-income areas, but drops are across the board. In areas where families earn an average more than $75,000, roughly a quarter of students are two or more grade levels below. For areas with average incomes less than $50,000, there are double the amount of students below grade level.

Disparities by income may corroborate concerns of inequitable access to technology, tutoring and one-one support.

3. In reading, early elementary schoolers appear most impacted by the pandemic. 9% more second graders are 2+ grade levels behind.

Curriculum Associates

The greatest changes from pre-pandemic levels are for second through fourth graders, when many children learn key reading skills.

Curriculum Associates

Upper-elementary and middle schoolers, who typically already know how to read and write longer texts, are testing closer to pre-pandemic levels. Still, only about a third are at or above grade level benchmarks.

4. In math, upper elementary and early middle school students appear most impacted by the pandemic. From second to sixth grade, 10% more students are 2+ grade levels behind.

Curriculum Associates

The proportion of students behind grade level increases as students continue through middle school — this year 50 percent of 8th graders, for instance, will require intensive support to get back on track.

Part of the reason may be due to content differences, according to Curriculum Associates’ analysis. Algebraic and conceptual thinking, introduced as students leave elementary school, is typically harder for students to grasp than number fluency in earlier grades.

Curriculum Associates

These findings are consistent across racial backgrounds; sixth through eighth graders testing below grade level at higher rates than their peers in earlier grades.

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

Ugandan climate activists Joan Namaggwa and Clare Nassanga advocate for climate education (The Malala Fund)

An “unprecedented” level of interest in girls’ education as a climate solution is growing worldwide, advocates say, as youth empowerment and gender are set to take center stage at the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference.

From Oct. 31 through Nov. 12, roughly 20,000 international leaders and climate advocates will gather in Glasgow, Scotland for the conference known as COP26. The next annual meeting is an opportunity to shape global climate priorities — during COP21, which took place in 2015, the landmark Paris Agreement was adopted to limit global warming.

This year’s conference is hosted by the United Kingdom, where climate and girls’ education has been prioritized over the last year. In 2021 the country led both the G7 and Global Partnership for Education Summit. In May, G7 countries reinforced political commitments for girls’ education, reaffirming that it’s a human right and setting two goals for the global community by 2026: 40 million more girls in school and 20 million more girls reading by age 10 or the end of primary school.

“There’s a lot of pressure on this COP to accelerate progress on the Paris Agreement and there will be some progress. However, I think the question will be: ‘is it enough?’” Naomi Nyamweya, a lead researcher with the Malala Fund, told The 74 by email. “Leaving girls behind undermines gender equality and governments’ ability to deliver on global climate priorities, including net zero.”

Climate crises will prevent an estimated 4 million girls in lower- and middle- income countries from accessing education in 2021, according to the Malala Fund. With current policy and emission trends, weather-related disruptions will prevent 12.5 million girls from finishing their education by 2025.

“We need leaders to see that climate change, girls’ education and gender equality aren’t separate issues,” Nyamweya added.

Quality, compulsory education for girls may equip more of the younger generation with tools to facilitate climate action, like literacy and critical thinking. And if climate curricula is prioritized alongside access to schools, young leaders can understand value in solutions that move beyond one-off, technical swaps to renewable energy, for example. Millions more can learn to assess climate threats and their root causes and support policies to curb poverty and environmental racism.

An analysis of countries with female political representation found that they are more likely to adopt stricter climate policies and have fewer carbon emissions. The findings further solidify arguments that investing in girls’ education and their pathways to leadership will yield positive outcomes for the earth.

Countries can also build stronger, low-carbon economies with more girls’ educated and entering the workforce. Particularly if their education includes, as advocates and youth activists hope, career and technical education for green jobs.

Climate change, and any possible solutions, are becoming harder to ignore.

Despite education’s consistent presence at past climate talks, many countries are not currently naming climate change education, or girls’ education, as part of their policy strategy. An analysis of recently updated ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ (NDCs) from 73 countries revealed that less than a quarter mention youth or children and none call for mandatory climate change education as a strategy, including the U.S.’s plan.

While NDCs are not the “end-all-be-all” of climate policy, they are the most visible, guiding document for nations to support Paris Agreement goals, says researcher Christina Kwauk, who penned the report and is a nonresident fellow with the Brookings Institute.

If girls’ education continues to be omitted from the documents, she told The 74, the priority will likely be overlooked in subsequent policies, strategies and initiatives — like expanding career and vocational training for green jobs or leadership.

“Girls’ education is going to be collateral damage from climate change, if we’re not paying attention to it. From the research we know that investing in girls’ education can be a powerful climate solution, why aren’t we talking about these two hand in hand?” Kwauk said. “If our education system isn’t helping us to address those structural and systemic aspects of the climate crisis, we will have wasted some really valuable years.”

If quality girls’ education and reproductive health care are provided over the next 30 years, 85.4 gigatons (mass roughly equal to 16 billion elephants) of carbon dioxide emissions could be avoided, according to researchers with the international nonprofit Project Drawdown, who estimate the impact of particular climate solutions. That is over four times more impactful than increasing concentrated solar power in the same timeframe.

Advocates caution against using Project Drawdown’s oft-quoted measure of impact as the sole driver for expanding girls’ education.

“Many stakeholders link girls’ education to reducing emissions, due to decreased fertility rates, however this places the burden of mitigating climate change on those least responsible for its cause and undermines a rights-based approach. We advocate for girls’ education as it is their right, and can equip them with the skills and knowledge to take climate action, adapt to impacts, be more resilient and engage in policy processes,” Plan International’s Jessica Cooke, a London-based expert in climate change and resilience programming, told The 74 via email.

Cooke will attend the U.N. conference this year with colleagues and youth activists to call for transformative education policy that advances both climate and gender justice.

“A gender-transformative education can equip girls with the skills and knowledge needed to tackle the climate crisis, claim and exercise their rights, and empower them to be leaders and decision-makers, including by challenging the systems and norms which reinforce gender, climate, racial and social injustices around the world,” Cooke added.

Roughly one third of girls don’t currently feel confident participating in climate policy processes, fewer boys feel the same hesitancy — about 25 percent, a recent Plan International youth survey revealed. And over 80 percent of youth surveyed in 37 nations, including the U.S., say that they don’t know anything about their country’s climate policy and that efforts to include them in decision making are insufficient.

More womens’ rights and feminist organizations are pushing for climate education policy as they begin to “see climate justice as a key aspect of work for gender equality,” said Bridget Burns, director of Women’s Environment & Development Organization. Her group partners with U.N. and government agencies as advisors on intersectional policy.

Similar thinking is underway at the U.S. federal level on the eve of the conference. At the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration,Frank Niepold leads climate education efforts and holds a singular leadership role for the U.S. with the UN’s Action for Climate Empowerment. He served as a U.S. delegate to the 2015 climate conference.

Niepold told The 74 that he’s searching for ways to collaborate with other agencies to support girls’ education as a key climate strategy. The infrastructure for dialogue leaves something to be desired. Beyond the climate talks — which are focused on the national level — there is not an existing support system for international groups to collaborate with sub-national agencies like his, which implements policies to protect the environment.

“A gender equity focus on educational programming at the federal level — it is missing,” he said, but added, “I think it’s emerging.”

Niepold confirmed that education remains on the negotiating table for this year’s talks.

Many are closely watching to see what the U.S. prioritizes during and following the conference, especially given that President Biden’s key clean energy budget provision was just gutted after a key senator voiced opposition. The president originally planned to tout the move — to replace coal and gas power plants with wind, solar and nuclear energy sources — as an example of his country’s commitment to climate solutions and infrastructure.

In 2017, former President Trump pledged to drop out of the Paris accord; the U.S. was the first country in the world to formally withdraw in 2020. At the last in-person climate talks in 2019, delegates were in disarray over whether his re-election would further block meaningful climate action globally. President Biden has since made the current administration’s position on climate change clear, rejoining the agreement in February 2021.

The Aspen Institute’s Laura Schifter, who’s heading up a new initiative to make school infrastructure more sustainable, remains hopeful that the nation is now prepared to back more education-centered climate solutions.

“The U.S. has the potential of really being an international leader in this space,” she said. “We have the administration right now committed to climate issues, we have schools across the country who have been experiencing climate impacts. We have a real need … the time is really right for education to mobilize and start taking climate action.”

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

YouthTruth

Nearly half of American students with learning barriers cited increasing amounts of stress, depression and anxiety as the leading obstacle in the 2020-21 school year. At the same time, students say their access to a trusted adult to discuss that stress decreased, according to a new national survey.

In the third and final survey of young people during the pandemic by the national nonprofit YouthTruth, 49 percent of students talked about the detrimental effects of growing mental and emotional issues while just 39 percent said they had an adult at school to whom they could turn for support. The gap in access to social and emotional help has widened even from fall 2020 survey data, at the start of students’ first full pandemic school year.

YouthTruth Executive Director Jen Wilka said adult connection was actually at its highest at the start of emergency distance learning in spring 2020. Those interactions and energy, which students say is key to learning, are not as strong now a year and a half later, evidenced by the declining number of young people who say they have a supportive adult in their school orbit.

“Students really felt that increase in their teachers making an effort to sort of reach outside and beyond those virtual walls and understand what it is like,” Wilka said. “That has now waned, and is closer to normal, maybe a little bit higher than normal. We saw that really peak in spring 2020.”

One aspect of student-adult relationships in school that has improved over time is respect. Some 70 percent of students said they think adults treat youth with respect — up significantly from the 57 percent who believed that pre-pandemic.

A narrative animation compiles student write-in responses on stress, anxiety, and depression and how it affected their learning in 2020-21. (YouthTruth)

YouthTruth, which solicits student, family, and educator feedback, analyzed data from 206,950 third- through 12th-grade students across 19 states and 585 urban, suburban and rural schools. Open-ended and choice responses were solicited via anonymous 15-minute surveys from January through May 2021.

Previous pandemic-era surveys were conducted in 2020 by YouthTruth from May through June (20,000 students) and October through December (85,170 students). Mental health concerns have consistently been a barrier to learning, and high school seniors’ plans post-graduation continue to be affected by the pandemic. Students have been vocal about the importance of building relationships with their teachers, and their sense of belonging within their school community peaked in fall 2020.

Twenty-one percent of those most recently surveyed attend high-poverty schools, similar to the national average of 25 percent, and students’ racial identities mirror national averages.

For students of all gender identities, depression, stress, and anxiety has become more prevalent as a barrier to learning since fall 2020. For female- and non-binary identifying students, the rates are much higher, 60 and 83 percent, respectively.

Youth cite overwhelming workloads with assignments that lack relevance to their daily life and futures, according to write-in responses and qualitative analysis.

“School restricts me from being content with who I am,” one high school upperclassman shared. “We need to radically change the education system, it’s way overdue for that and it needs to right now. I cannot get out of bed anymore. I hate school more than how I used to. I’m mentally strained because of distance learning […] However, an English assignment and 11 other assignments are due by 11:59pm tonight because grades are so important – more important than surviving and finding new healthy coping mechanisms after all.”

Education leaders across the country are seeking ways to ameliorate growing concerns for students’ emotional and social well-being; a number of states plan to utilize American Rescue Plan funds to bolster mental health access.

In the North Clackamas School District, serving the greater Portland, Oregon area, social and mental health services were established pre-COVID yet leaders saw emotional needs grow during the pandemic. In response to the changing ways students needed access to adults and sought connection, the district partnered with providers and nonprofits to offer telehealth services, devices, and hotspots to youth and their families districtwide.

Through the pandemic, the district sought to make “sure that we had established pathways that were normalized, made very typical and open for families to access a mental health therapist,” Dr. Shelly Reggiani, the district’s director of equity and instruction, told The 74 during a YouthTruth press call last week.

In sharing other ways to remove learning barriers and improve engagement, youth said they’d like to see more real-world topics, like applying for higher education, financial aid, and jobs and learning personal finance.

Survey results show that fewer seniors surveyed this spring will head to four-year institutions this fall, a trend also reflected by declining enrollment rates, which saw the worst single-year decline since 2011. And though more will enroll in two-year colleges than in fall 2020 — about 20 percent of those surveyed — the proportion hasn’t yet rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.

Qualitative survey data revealed some of the barriers that persist for high schoolers looking to access higher education. Students recognized “the need for social capital (like from a teacher or sibling) as part of college access,” the confusing nature of the application process, which is typically formally taught during the school day, and felt that finding information and choosing to apply came “too late,” YouthTruth researchers told The 74.

“The school is pushing students to go to a four-year college and for most students they don’t want to go to a four-year college because they don’t want to go into debt,” one student said.

“Give us Pathways for the Future,” one of four video animations depicting trends from 480,000 open-ended responses and reflections on the 2020-21 academic year. (YouthTruth)

“They’re really searching for meaning in learning, and that’s an opportunity for us as educators to connect learning, and real life, and relevance to help address students’ needs here,” Sonya Heisters, YouthTruth’s deputy director, said.

Other notable findings

• Secondary school students’ perceptions of learning and belonging returned to pre-pandemic levels
• Many Spanish-speaking students detailed how language barriers became an additional obstacle to their learning during virtual and hybrid environments, and 21 percent of Hispanic/Latino students cited lack of teacher support as an obstacle to learning compared to just 14 percent of other students.
• Providing inclusive curricula, adopting anti-racist policies, and treating students fairly are common recommendations found among data from 5,000 Black / African-American students.
• Many students enjoyed paper-free learning, and hope to maintain access to online materials with the return to in-person school
• Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino students report feeling unsafe in school at higher rates than their peers, at 11 and 16 percent respectively vs. 9 percent for non-Black, non-Hispanic students.
• 65 percent of students report that their teachers give extra help when needed, but this is more common among students who receive high academic grades

Disclosure: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides financial support to YouthTruth and LA School Report’s parent company, The 74 Media.

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

High school students move between classes on E. Citrus Ave, 15 minutes east of San Bernardino, California. San Bernardino City Unified opened grade-change applications the third week of school to better spread word, yet only 2 percent of eligible high schoolers applied. (Stan Lim / Getty Images)

California gave all high schoolers a two-week window this summer to change their 2020-21 letter grades to pass/no pass, an overture meant to soften the academic blow of COVID-19 on their GPA, but turns out very few took the state up on its offer.

Districts across the state reported they did not receive nearly as many applicants as anticipated and, as a result, there is some legislative momentum right now to extend the deadline.

School officials attributed the weak response to a number of factors, including summer communication lags and a concern among students that having pass/no pass outcomes on their transcripts would hurt their college prospects.

“Sometimes it feels like our families have some school messenger fatigue, where they don’t always hear them or listen to them,” said Tess Seay, head counselor at Fresno High School in the state’s Central Valley. Of their over 2,000 students, roughly 50 requested grade changes before their district’s Aug. 17 deadline, five days after their first day of school. They expected at least 100.

The ability to purge a low letter grade from your record has very real consequences. For two students on the cusp of 2.0 GPAs, Seay said the grade change option pushed them over that eligibility threshold for Cal Grants, the state’s loan-free financial aid. Some Cal Grants could provide as much as $14,226 per year for college tuition, making a significant financial impact for low-income students.

California legislators in July passed the law designed to not penalize students for the challenges that came with remote learning during the pandemic. In addition to the pass/no pass option, families could also request that their child repeat a grade or waive particular high school graduation requirements not mandated by the state.

The law required that districts notify families by Aug. 2 and provide a two-week application period. Many have questioned whether the timeline adequately enabled families — particularly those without regular internet access, or who may have been offline during the summer — to seriously consider their grade change options.

In San Bernardino, students returned to in-person learning Aug. 2 for the first time since March 2020. Anticipating a more hectic than usual back-to-school season as a result, the district opened English and Spanish-language grade-change applications on Aug. 16 for their 14,911 high schoolers, weeks after many other districts.

By Aug. 31, the district east of Los Angeles received 256 applications — just under 2 percent of those eligible.

“By design, we planned to start [the application window] the third week of school, allowing students, families, and counselors to focus on [the new state policy] and not overlook it in the rush of the start of the school year. This way students were settled into a routine before we brought it to their attention,” Maria Garcia, the district’s communications officer, said in an email to The 74.

Each San Bernardino high school website flags the policy and directs families to the district application. Families were also notified via their district’s phone app [Parent Square], social media and email newsletters.

Nancy Witrado, director of counseling and guidance with Fresno Unified School District, said their application was made available via a fillable PDF, available in Hmong, Spanish and English. While they did not track the demographic details of who applied, she told The 74 that many originated from a high school in northern Fresno county with a history of high parental engagement.

Many Fresno families filled out applications incorrectly, asking to change Bs or Fs to pass; the former would not benefit students and the latter would be impossible. The district is now paying overtime to several registrar and counseling employees to meet about 200 requests.

“We have a lot of follow-up to do, and to try to connect with parents to make sure that they have a full understanding of what it is they’re asking for,” Witrado said.

Fresno Unified stuck to its Aug. 17 cutoff, though Witrado says not many families have reached out after-the-fact. One instance, of an application mistakenly submitted to a student’s teacher, will be honored because it came in before the deadline.

Problems reaching families may not be the only driver behind fewer grade-change requests — some college-bound students were warded off by the worry that a pass/no pass grade carried negative connotations with admissions officers.

Cecilia Roeder Chang, a senior at Gunn High School in affluent Palo Alto, said her district and school did a great job of getting the word out online, and her peers even posted about it on Instagram. Last school year she earned two Cs, in physics and foreign policy, that she considered changing to pass.

“I originally had decided that I was going to. Then I emailed my school counselor, and they replied back that colleges didn’t like that as much. So I decided against [it],” she said.

Roeder Chang, who is applying to both in- and out-of-state schools, was not made aware that all California State Universities and all campuses within the University of California system must accept transcripts with pass/no pass grades, or that some Cal Grants require a minimum 2.0 GPA. Her peers did not apply for grade changes, she said, given that they had mostly As and Bs.

The knowledge that some are able to change low grades for the better, after the school year’s end, has garnered mixed feelings.

“I sort of feel conflicted because on one hand, if you do have like lower grades it is helpful, but also on the other hand, if you are one of those people who are getting consistently like higher grades, you can feel like, I don’t want to say annoyance — maybe a little frustration.”

North of Roeder Chang’s Palo Alto, Oakland Unified School District received 660 applications in Chinese, Arabic, English, Spanish and Vietnamese. All of the district’s 13 high schools were represented, and the highest volume of applications were submitted by students at Skyline, Oakland Tech and Oakland High, the largest schools. Only two families have reached out after the district’s Aug. 16 deadline.

“Given this was the first legislation of its kind, we didn’t anticipate a certain number of requests and made sure we were prepared to handle a large number,” John Sasaki, the district’s communications director, told The 74 by email.

From a policy standpoint, advocates caution against permanent alternative grading. The Collaborative for Student Success, a national nonprofit that aims to make students prepared for post-secondary education, expressed concern for pass/no pass policies over longer periods, saying they may lead to decreased expectations for students and less accurate student data.

Short-term adjustments to grading policies can be beneficial for students who may need to heal from collective trauma, said one former high school math teacher who now works with the Collaborative. Recalling how his Las Vegas school let up on requirements after a mass shooting in October 2017, he said changing grading policies provided students with needed flexibility.

He said that other supports — like removing deadlines or penalties for late work — may adequately support students without overhauling A-F grading, which feeds into many other systems like financial aid, school report cards and state reporting.

San Diego Unified — the state’s second-largest district — saw a surge in D and F grades during the pandemic. Only 290 of their 36,000 high schoolers applied for grade changes. The district discouraged families from seeking no pass grades for Ds and Fs in its communications — recommending instead that the grade be “suppressed” by repeating the class.

Because of low application rates and school capacity to process applications at the start of the school year, San Diego state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, who authored the state law, is now recommending districts extend deadlines voluntarily and is pursuing legislation to formally extend the deadline to October.

“I will say we’re a little disappointed with the lack of flexibility with some of the districts,” Gonzalez said. “If you feel like you missed [the deadline], contact the school district. Really push.”

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

A preview of Diane Yokoyama’s project campaign for students’ shoes, shirts, snacks, and drinks (DonorsChoose)

Witnessing the growth of food and income insecurity during the pandemic, teachers and districts are turning to DonorsChoose — a nonprofit crowdfunding site for public educators — to leverage financial support.

Founded in 2000 and historically utilized for instructional materials that teachers would either have to pay for out of pocket or go without, like auxiliary books, kits, games, and technology, the platform and its district partnership model have enabled teachers to raise over $670,000 in funds for warmth, care, and hunger needs for students since January 2020, according to DonorsChoose’s public relations team.

New York elementary teacher Laurie Gurdal at P.S. 245 in Brooklyn, for example, wrote a project to fund a food pantry for her low-income students. “Our families are facing food shortages at this time,” the project reads, “it is hard to learn when you are hungry.” Two donors donated $1,108 between March 8 and April 5, 2021, fully funding the pantry in under a month.

The New York City Department of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District, and Philadelphia City School District joined DonorChoose’s partnership program in 2020, which more than 180 districts now participate in, representing over 10,000 schools nationally.

Though individual LAUSD teachers have utilized the platform since about 2005, district partners are offered added support and communication. Principals are notified whenever a new project is started at their school to get a better sense of community need, and when companies offer donation matches for projects. Partners are also provided resources for training teachers to use the platform and data for district leadership.

Austin Buetner, who ended his three-year tenure as superintendent of the country’s second-largest district this June, said that LAUSD’s participation is part of an effort to engage the broader community in schools, particularly as housing and food insecurity becomes more widespread.

“We have to expand the scope of support for public education. There are philanthropists who can write large checks, there are active and engaged individuals who can bring intellectual capital to a school or volunteer their time. And there are others who say well actually I have limited means, but I really want to know what that classroom needs — it turns out, a $10, $20 or $30 donation can make a difference.”

Since March 2020, 34 percent of all projects in LAUSD have funded technology needed for virtual learning, food, clothing, and hygiene, up from their all-time average of 28 percent. The trend is similar in Philadelphia, where about 32 percent of pandemic-era projects have requested technology, food, clothing, and hygiene resources, up from their 25 percent all-time average.

This month, Philadelphia’s returning teachers will attend DonorsChoose hands-on classes as a part of their professional development training. ​​Michael Sonkowsky, the district’s deputy chief of the Office of Grant Development, says teachers have been requesting support for fundraising platforms for years.

As their small office adapted to a surge of pandemic-related needs — including preparing school buildings for students’ safe return — the formal partnership enabled them to streamline communications with teachers, particularly about company-match opportunities.

• Read more: Innovating in a crisis — How 4 educators are using ‘classroom’ technology in ways that will stay long after the pandemic ends

“We who work in development have seen a truly inspiring surge in philanthropy — both via crowdfunding platforms and via more traditional avenues — during the pandemic,” Sonkowsky said in an email.

Currently, there are 976 projects on the site within the warmth, care, and hunger category that support classes with majority low-income students. The push to provide young learners with basic needs, from workable laptops to hot meals, was one felt across the country as districts rushed to adapt to hybrid and virtual learning environments and families experienced unemployment and uncertainty.

Economists now refer to the pandemic-era recession as K-shaped: high income families bounced back and, in many cases, have become more wealthy, while low-income families, typically involved in the hard-hit service industry and in-person labor, have experienced devastating economic losses. Teachers like LAUSD’s Diane Yokoyama, who serves predominantly low-income children, have witnessed the recession’s toll on students.

“Many of my parents work two jobs just to make ends meet. My students come to school with the bare minimum,” Yokoyama wrote in an email. “I had projects funded for clothes, food, backpacks, umbrellas, shoes … things that I could never afford on my own.”

With $120 billion in American Rescue Plan pandemic relief funding heading to schools to ameliorate some of these inequities, states are proposing major investments in mental health, well-being, tutoring and data systems.

With an influx of funds, California will begin the nation’s largest free-lunch program for students, regardless of family income. But in the months states and districts were planning how to allocate relief dollars, student needs were mounting.

For Yokoyama, DonorsChoose provided a path to meet urgent calls for meals, technology, and pandemic safety protections. In some cases, projects were fulfilled within weeks. Once funded, dry food, clothes, cleaning supplies, and PPE were mailed to her school, where she picked up items and delivered them to students’ homes.

“I wanted to reassure the parents and children that it would be OK to return to school,” she said, reflecting on her efforts to get materials into students’ hands.

Yokoyama has used DonorsChoose for years, but the platform offered her “a new way to teach” during hybrid and virtual learning. Donors funded a second monitor and portable whiteboard for her home, making virtual lessons more accessible.

The projects and subsequent data given to district partners has also provided a gauge of where needs are left unmet by pre-existing budgets. Superintendent Buetner dubbed teachers’ projects, “the voice of the classroom, which we can learn from.”

“The best perspective of what students’ needs are comes from the front of the classroom,” he said, “not from some distant central office building.”

This article was published in partnership with The 74. Sign up for The 74’s newsletter here.

The Highland Project / brilliant corners Research & Strategies

Safe, high quality in-person schools and access to higher education are top concerns for Black women – nearly as important as protecting voting rights and fighting racism, a new national survey has found.

Conducted by brilliant corners Research & Strategies, “Our Power, Our Legacy,” a June survey of 733 randomly selected Black women over the age of 18, was commissioned by The Highland Project to identify what priorities Black women identify as critical for future economic success after the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on Black communities.

“I want to turn and ask Black mothers, what do they need, and how can we better engage them more authentically in co-architecting solutions?” said Gabrielle Wyatt, who founded the Highland Project in 2020. About 89 percent of Black mothers surveyed say reaching educational goals is a key measure of success; while ,85 percent say improving K-12 education is the top priority.

The report’s sample is geographically representative, with 27 percent of respondents having children under 18; 32 percent holding a higher education degree; and 38 percent married or partnered.

The findings will inform programming for The Highland Project’s first cohort of Black women leaders and advocacy plans for their local partners, including the education-focused Mind Trust in Indianapolis. Wyatt, Newark Schools’ former chief of strategy, created the nonprofit Highland Project as a coalition of Black women leaders aimed at closing the racial wealth gap via systems-level change.

Wyatt told The 74 that The Highland Project’s mission was born out of a belief that wealth provides opportunity — to things like home ownership and rainy day funds — yet economic solutions alone cannot solve the racial wealth gap.

“I think about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — our lives and our bodies to be protected and need to be thriving. We need access to incredible health care,” said Wyatt. “We need access to great and nutritious foods. We need access to a community policing model… We also need access to great and incredible schools. When we say wealth, we need to be thinking about pulling multiple policy levers in order to get there.”

Here are three of the survey’s key findings and their implications for education policy:

1. Black women worry about children’s education more than anything else

Fifty-nine percent of Black women say the issue most frequently on their mind — more concerning than retirement savings, healthcare costs, and losing their job — is whether their child or the children around them are “getting a good enough education.”

Quality education for the younger generation was the most frequently cited worry among all income levels.

The ability to afford higher education is a top concern for 47 percent, as well. College access and affordability is of greater concern for single Black women across age groups — 55 percent fear that they won’t be able to afford higher education for themselves or a family member.

Black women also hold disproportionately high levels of student debt as compared to any other demographic group. One year after graduating from 4-year institutions, Black women owe an average of $8,000 more than their white peers, likely due to compounding factors: generational wealth and a family’s ability to contribute to college costs, access to employment and wage gaps.

“What we have seen and what we have heard, as a culture, is that college is supposed to be the thing that closes the wealth gap for us, with our white peers, and what we’re seeing now is the opposite happening,” Wyatt said. “We’re in an urgent state of affairs in terms of addressing the student debt crisis, and continuing to kick the can on this, via the extension of loan payment relief, isn’t going to get us there.”

The report recommends eliminating student debt, calling it a “crippling barrier to wealth building.”

2. Lack of educational opportunities is a top barrier to economic success for Black women

About 21 percent of Black women cite lack of educational opportunities as a key hurdle to economic success, and more than a quarter of Black women with college degrees believe so. Racial discrimination and lack of job opportunities were the other most frequently chosen hurdles.

The barriers align with the reports’ central finding of what priorities Black women want leaders to focus on: voting rights, racial discrimination, and access to quality education.

Wyatt told The 74 that the lack of diversity in educational leadership may be part of why Black women aren’t accessing more educational opportunities. Nationally, 15 percent of the public school population are Black students yet seven percent are Black teachers and about three percent of superintendents are Black women.

To promote academic and social opportunities, education advocates and researchers suggest strengthening the teacher and leadership pipeline to better represent students.

“The federal dollars that are at play right now offer huge opportunities for districts to help improve teacher diversity in particular, from recruiting and hiring, to setting up mentorship programs to encourage students of color to become teachers,” Wyatt said.

3. Black women say the ability to pursue educational goals is a key measure of overall success

An overwhelming majority of Black women define success in ways that affect their quality of life beyond financial means. Eighty-five percent say that pursuing educational goals is one key way they look at success.

Educational opportunity and attainment is more important to Black womens’ perceived success than a high-paying job (82 percent), owning a home or raising kids (81 percent).

For Wyatt, these findings are another indicator that leaders must look to education policy to ameliorate racial inequities, particularly as more data is released from pandemic-era learning.

“We know that opportunity gaps are widening and we know that students are learning at different rates,” said Wyatt, “and for me that means that we differentiated solutions that are rooted deeply in community voice, deeply in evidence and deeply with equity and justice as our Northstar.”

Other notable findings

• 83 percent say college needs to be made more affordable
• 88 percent say they will likely vote during midterm elections
• 78 percent say quality day care needs to be made more affordable

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