Dear Colleague,
At the risk of mentioning the obvious, Covid-19 – the
disease, the people’s response to it, and its politics – still dominates the
news. Just about every teacher in the country’s life has been affected by the pandemic.
Things will get back to normal at some point, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when
and what “normal” will look like.
The Huffington Post warns us that “School Districts Are
Preparing To Lay Off Thousands Amid Coronavirus-Related Budget Shortfalls.”
Individual school districts are primarily funded
through a combination of state and local revenue, with a small portion of
funding from the federal government. At the local level, school districts are
often reliant on dollars generated through property taxes, which can be a
disadvantage for poorer areas, inextricably tying districts’ fate to that of
their communities’ success. At the state level, education represents one of the
biggest items on a budget, often funded through a combination of income taxes and
sales taxes.
As states work to revise their budgets amid
unanticipated deep revenue losses, school districts have been told to prepare
for draconian cuts.
To continue reading, go here.
David Osborne writes that the “COVID slide is going to
make the usual summer slide even worse. Time to move to year-round school
schedules.”
Districts and charter organizations could switch to
year-round schedules, which have developed in some places to combat summer
slide. Typically, these schools close for only a month or so at the height of
summer. They reopen in early August, then have two-week breaks in the fall, at
Christmas, in February and in April. Some charter schools bring kids who are
behind grade level in for intensive catch-up work during at least one of the
two weeks off each quarter.
Thousands of schools have adopted schedules such as
this over the past three or four decades. A report from the Congressional
Research Service documented 3,700 schools with year-round schedules in 2012
(out of close to 100,000 total), up from 450 in 1985.
To read more, go here.
The American Enterprise Institute has come up with “A
Blueprint for Back to School.”
State policymakers, school leaders, and community
leaders should develop plans based on the following assumptions.
•Schools will remain closed
for the rest of the 2019–20 academic year but will reopen in the 2020–21
academic year (albeit with the potential of localized rolling closures for
14–28 days triggered by additional waves of infections).
•Reopened schools will need
modifications based on guidance from national and state health officials, which
could include physical distancing, temperature screenings, and frequent
disinfecting of classrooms.
•Accommodations will be
needed for the one in five teachers, one in four school principals, and other
school staff who are over age 55 (and thus in a high-risk COVID-19 category),
as well as for those at risk due to other health factors.
•A vaccine might not be
available for 18 months or more, meaning that plans should take into account
both the 2020–21 and 2021–22 school years.
To learn more, go here.
USA Today writer Erin Richards looks at what the
new education normal might be.
The school week looks vastly different, with most
students attending school two or three days a week and doing the rest of their
learning at home. At school, desks are spaced apart to discourage touching. Some
classrooms extend into unused gymnasiums, libraries or art rooms – left vacant
while schools put on hold activities that cram lots of children together.
Arrival, dismissal and recess happen on staggered
schedules and through specific doors to promote physical distancing. Students
eat lunch at their desks. Those old enough to switch classes move with the same
cohort every day – or teachers move around while students stay put – to
discourage mingling with new groups.
Teachers and other education staff at higher risk of
contracting the virus continue to teach from home, while younger or healthier
educators teach in-person.
Everyone washes their hands. A lot.
Frequently touched school surfaces get wiped down. A
lot.
To read on, go here.
Additionally, it just may be the time to reexamine
Benjamin Scafidi’s study on the “staffing surge” in public education. This
researcher and economics professor found that between 1950 and 2015, the number
of teachers increased about 2.5 times faster than the uptick in students. Even
more outrageous is the fact that the hiring of other education employees –
administrators, teacher aides, counselors, social workers, etc. – rose more
than 7 times the increase in students. Scafidi writes, “If the increase in ‘all
other staff’ alone had matched student enrollment growth between FY 1992 and FY
2015—the most recent staffing data available—then a cautious estimate finds
American public schools would have saved almost $35 billion in annual recurring
savings. That is $35 billion every single year from 1992 to 2015, for a
cumulative total of $805 billion over this time period.”
To read on, go here.
One interesting thought on the future involves school
choice. Ginny Gentles, founder of School Choice Solutions, LLC., writes that
governors should be able choose to allocate federal funds in a student-centered
way by establishing K-12 education savings accounts (ESA) to cover families’
remote education expenses.
In the five states with existing ESA programs, the
governors could expand the existing programs. In other states, the governor
could either provide funds to existing state-funded scholarship programs or
create a GEER-funded ESA or scholarship for the next year. Parents could use
the funds for technology, curriculum, online resources, tutoring, private
school tuition, or summer courses to compensate for the early end to the school
year. In areas where school districts are not providing online instruction or
therapies for special needs students, parents can use the GEER-funded accounts
to meet the needs of their children.
To learn more, go here.
Not surprisingly, the unions have their own ideas about
next steps. The California Teachers Association is demanding a lot more money
from the Feds.
There is no solution that does not involve aid from
the federal government combined with generating more state revenues. We are
calling on the federal government to authorize $1 trillion in the next CARES
Act and provide $175 billion for the Education Stabilization Fund to distribute
to states.
The American Federation of Teachers has cooked up a
20-page plan to “Safely Reopen America’s Schools and Communities.”
The American Federation of Teachers has released a
detailed road map that, in the absence of a COVID-19 vaccine, charts a path to
safely and responsibly reopen school buildings and other institutions crucial
to the well-being and economic vitality of our communities.
The 20-page, science-based “Plan to Safely Reopen
America’s Schools and Communities” sprung from an intense collaboration of
public health professionals, union leaders and frontline workers to prepare for
what happens next in the period between flattening the curve and truly
eradicating the virus.
It features five core pillars that inform our decision
to reopen the country based on the science as well as educator and healthcare
expertise—not on politics or wishful thinking.
In
other news, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results of
the 2018 history, geography and civics test for 8th graders were
released. Not pretty. The level of proficiency for our students is scandalous.
Less than a quarter are at or above the proficient level in the three subject
areas, and only 15 percent are in U.S. history. (The assessment is given
predominantly to traditional public schoolers, but some private and charter
school students are tested.)
The overall findings were distinctly subpar. In
history, students scored lower on all four areas measured by the test—the
evolution of American democracy; culture; economic and technical changes; and
America’s changing role in the world. The poor results were consistent across
all racial and ethnic categories too, with the exception of students
identifying as Asian or Pacific Islander.
Across the three subjects, a quarter or more of
students fell below the “basic” performance category, meaning they didn’t have
even the fundamental prerequisite skills to master the content. Thirty-four
percent of students fell below the “basic” performance category in history,
compared to 29 percent in 2014. In geography, 29 percent fell below that mark
compared to 25 percent in 2014. There was no significant change in civics.
To learn more, go here.
And finally, our friends at the Association of American
Educators have come up with a list of coronavirus resources for teachers,
including training webinars, virtual educator resource sharing, a grant program
for teachers and a lot more.
To see what AAE is offering, go here.
Additionally, if you have any valuable resources that you
would like to share, please do so by emailing cteninfo@ctenhome.org
or posting them on Facebook if you prefer. The CTEN page can be accessed here,
and the CTEN group can be found here.
Best of luck to all of you, your families and your students
during these very trying times.
Sincerely,
Larry Sand
CTEN President
