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Williams: Let’s keep the innovations the pandemic brought to teaching English learners and reaching their families
Here, in the wrenching 13th — or perhaps 14th, depending on how you mark the tragedies — month of the pandemic, so many American families are frayed. Even with vaccines bringing us nearer to something like its end, the strains of the long lockdown are weighing on pretty much every parent, caregiver and kid. And...
By Conor Williams | May 24, 2021
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Analysis: As schools begin to reopen, some are developing all-virtual options to meet students’ diverse needs. Here are 6 examples
Teaching to the middle has historically been the approach taken by many schools nationwide, where a one-size-fits-all model is the norm and students must figure out how to fit in or fail. When COVID-19 hit and schools quickly pivoted to distance learning, challenges and disparities — many already present but ignored — were revealed for...
By Jean-Claude Brizard and Vic Vuchic | May 12, 2021
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Otero: Decrepit schools make recovering lost learning even harder. Federal relief funds can pay for much-needed upgrades
Tackling learning loss that has resulted from the pandemic is today’s most pressing education policy concern. Critical remedies like intensive tutoring, added instructional time and early warning indicators have gotten a lot of attention. But there is another solution that is ripe for action, one that undergirds all other efforts to address learning loss: upgrading school buildings....
By Mildred Otero | May 6, 2021
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Q&A: National Parent Union’s Keri Rodrigues on public school disenrollment amid the COVID crisis
America’s education system continues to reckon with the enormous disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although some students and families became well-acclimated with the distance learning process overall, many others found it challenging — and often impossible — to participate in because of persistent barriers like job losses, lack of stable housing, insufficient internet access...
By The 74 | May 5, 2021
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Analysis: 10 lessons from past educational disruptions, and how they can help students make up lost learning after COVID-19
Compared to a normal year, students learned less in 2020, were more likely to fail their classes and were less likely to be in school at all. Is this all just temporary? As we move further into 2021, will everything start returning back to normal? Based on the research on past educational disruptions, the answers...
By Chad Aldeman | May 4, 2021
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Report: Learning loss data show 40,000 Los Angeles high school students off track to graduate
Forty thousand high school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are at risk of not graduating — including 6,000 this year — according to a new analysis that tracks the effects of school closures on students in the nation’s second largest district. In middle school, about a third of students in the district are currently...
By Linda Jacobson | April 13, 2021
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‘Opening the door wider’: With recent admissions decisions, top-ranked L.A. arts school put equity in the spotlight
Updated April 13 Nyla Joseph has felt at ease in front of a camera ever since appearing in a public service announcement six years ago. But her dreams of becoming an actor were frustrated because her South Los Angeles middle school lacks a theater program. And her mother was leery of internet scams promising to turn her...
By Linda Jacobson | April 8, 2021
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Analysis: Teaching students in person and online at the same time is a huge challenge. 4 ways to bridge the home-classroom gap
Across the country, educators are working hard to support students learning in hybrid contexts, where students are attending school both online and in person. In many schools, staff availability to teach, attendance policies and a desire to have students working with teachers for as much time as possible mean many districts are pursuing a simultaneous...
By Beth Rabbitt | April 5, 2021
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Many rural remote learners are receiving little to no live teaching, federal survey reveals
More students than previously understood may be attending school virtually, survey data released in March by the U.S. Department of Education reveal. And many students — particularly remote learners from rural schools — are getting little to no live instructional time with teachers. While the survey finds that over three-quarters of elementary and middle schoolers attend schools that offer...
By Asher Lehrer-Small | April 1, 2021
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Court documents reveal how L.A. teachers union gained upper hand in pandemic negotiations, limiting instruction time
As the Los Angeles Unified School District prepares to reopen elementary schools for the first time in 13 months, recently released court documents show that while the district pushed for more instructional time for students earlier this year, the union successfully bargained for a reduced teacher workday — and a lot more of what it wanted. On...
By Linda Jacobson | March 30, 2021