Public Education Stories

From the Education Writers' Association,Threatened But Still Standing: The Federal Program for After-School, Summer Learning

Three times, the Trump administration has tried to ax federal funding for after-school and summer learning programs, and three times Congress has responded by adding more money to the pot. 

Most recently, the U.S. House, where Democrats hold a majority, approved a $100 million increase for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative—the primary source of federal funds for local after-school and summer learning programs. That line item, which stills needs approval from the Republican-led Senate, would primarily support activities during the 2020-21 school year.

Washington State itself has this:

The Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) Council is charged by RCW 28A.630.123 to advise the Governor, the Legislature, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction regarding a comprehensive expanded learning opportunities system.

Interesting Op-Ed from the NY Times about kids and reading - should you punish or reward a kid who doesn't want to read?

From the Liberated Genius blog, by Dr. April Warren-Grice: Show Don’t Tell: Decolonize your classroom, syllabus, rules, and practices.  It's an article with good ideas that may make their way into your child's classroom.

What if in math and science you:

• discussed how different cultures played a role in what we do and know in the field; and
• presented “hidden figures” of people of color and other marginalized groups who have made amazing contributions in the field?

What if every image on the walls accurately represented people of color as the majority of people in the world, and women as a little over 50% of the population?

What if every speaker you brought in was a speaker from a marginalized population—Black, Brown, Asian, Latinx, *dis/abled, speaks English as a second language, one who identifies as LGBTQIA, and etc who are not only experts in the field but who champion social justice as a part of their work.

Interesting take on equity and so-called personalized learning from Education Next (I'll have a thread soon solely about personalized learning and tech in the classroom):

As much as we hear “equity” talked about as a value in our education system, it can be a difficult to tackle head on. Since our own inception, the Christensen Institute has been committed to researching and supporting approaches to instruction that break open the factory model of school. We believe that, particularly in light of the growth of online and blended learning, we are living in an era in which we can feasibly redesign school around students’ needs and strengths and free up teachers to teach individual and small groups of students more often. But we don’t just research these trends because they are innovative—but because they are imperative.