-
Strong gains, quick losses: New research on students with disabilities finds conventional data hides both opportunity and risk
A new report from the assessment group NWEA underscores two findings that could inform how schools support children with disabilities going forward. Students receiving special education services often make more academic growth during a single school year than their typically abled peers, but are at substantially higher risk of losing ground during summer break. If...
By Beth Hawkins | June 10, 2021
-
A better equation: New pandemic data supports acceleration rather than remediation to make up for COVID learning loss
As educators plan how they will address lost student learning during the next school year, they should forgo the traditional remedy of remediation in favor of a strategy known as acceleration, a new report recommends. The analysis was performed by TNTP, formerly known as The New Teacher Project, and the nonprofit Zearn, whose online math...
By Beth Hawkins | May 27, 2021
-
‘Welcome to the Red Summer of 2021’: Minnesota social studies teacher of the year shares lesson on Daunte Wright’s killing & the deadly events of summer 1919
Long before sunrise the morning after Daunte Wright, a Black motorist, was killed by a white police officer outside Minneapolis, Kara Cisco made some quick posts to Facebook. She asked if anyone knew whether the previous night’s protests would affect her commute to work. She would need to traverse the part of Minneapolis where the...
By Beth Hawkins | April 15, 2021
-
New poll finds parents want better distance learning now, online options even after COVID, more family engagement
While many school leaders focus on bringing students back into in-person classrooms as they were, a majority of parents want them to develop new and better ways of teaching, prioritize high-quality distance learning now and continue to offer virtual instruction even after COVID-19 recedes, a new poll finds. The survey, commissioned by the National Parents...
By Beth Hawkins | December 8, 2020
-
Individualize instruction, remove barriers, track student progress: Some tips for making distance-learning special ed work
“Can you give an example of an online lesson that’s effective for students with disabilities?” That’s the question Elizabeth Barker has fielded over and over as schools have prepared to reopen. But it’s the one question that Barker, a special education expert with NWEA, a nonprofit data and assessment provider, can’t answer. Because students in...
By Beth Hawkins | September 9, 2020
-
15 years after Hurricane Katrina, how 5 New Orleans educators are tapping lessons from the storm to confront COVID-19
On the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the devastation wrought by the storm and subsequent flood is still hard to fathom. Within a day of the storm’s landfall Aug. 29, 2005, 80 percent of New Orleans was underwater. Tens of thousands of evacuees crowded into sports arenas and convention centers there and in Baton Rouge...
By Beth Hawkins | August 27, 2020
-
Researchers warn educators about a precipitous ‘COVID Slide,’ say schools will need to confront widening learning gaps this fall
Education data guru Chris Minnich has some advice for school leaders: You may have spent the spring struggling to get food, hotspots and human connection to students, but right now is the time to plan for how school must be different next year if you’re going to address learning gaps widened by the pandemic. Minnich...
By Beth Hawkins | August 13, 2020
-
A school built on stagecraft: Los Angeles performing arts program boasts dance, music — and outstanding special ed
Over the next several weeks, LA School Report will be publishing stories reported and written before the coronavirus pandemic. Their publication was sidelined when schools across the country abruptly closed, but we are sharing them now because the information and innovations they highlight remain relevant to our understanding of education. Author’s note: This school profile...
By Beth Hawkins | June 11, 2020
-
All in: A Southern California school with a radical — and successful — vision for students with disabilities
Over the next several weeks, LA School Report will be publishing stories reported and written before the coronavirus pandemic. Their publication was sidelined when schools across the country abruptly closed, but we are sharing them now because the information and innovations they highlight remain relevant to our understanding of education. Author’s note: CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger...
By Beth Hawkins | June 4, 2020
-
New legal theory leads to court ruling that Detroit students have a right to literacy. Now, Michigan’s Governor has until Thursday to act
In recent days, dozens of Detroit parents — quarantined in COVID hotspots with one of the nation’s widest digital divides — have taken to their phones to demand Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer settle a lawsuit that found the state violated their children’s right to learn to read. Using the hashtags #RightToLiteracy and #settlethiscase, some are...
By Beth Hawkins | May 7, 2020