Tag: school choice
Schools Seeing More Failing Grades Than Usual In Era Of Distance Learning. See more national education news here
The first report cards of the school year are arriving with many more Fs than usual in a dismal sign of the struggles students are experiencing with distance learning.
School districts from coast to coast have reported the number of students failing classes has risen by as many as two or three times — with English language learners and disabled and disadvantaged students suffering the most.
“It was completely off the rails from what is normal for us, and that was obviously very alarming,” said Erik Jespersen, principal of Oregon’s McNary High School, where 38% of grades in late October were failing, compared with 8% in normal times.
Child Opportunity Index: How is your neighborhood for raising kids? See more state education and legislative news here
This past week Diversity Data Kids in partnership with Brandeis University released the Child Opportunity Index. The index uses data for the country’s 100 largest metro areas and scores them in areas such as education, health and environment, as well as social and economic factors.
Madison Wisconsin received the highest score of all metro areas in the country with an 83 out of 100. The Phoenix metro scored 43, well under the national median of 55.
FUTURE Act: What Students, Borrowers Should Know. See more national education news here
LATE IN 2019, MANY higher education advocates and experts declared the FUTURE Act a major win for college financial aid – but how exactly will the legislation passed in Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump affect students seeking aid in the coming cycles?
School leaders say better pay would attract more teachers. See more state education news here
Tenth in a series: School leaders say better pay would help them attract teachers to Arizona’s classrooms, especially in rural areas, and prevent educators from seeking more lucrative careers.
They’re calling for the legislature to increase public K-12 education funding after an Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association survey of 150 public district and charter schools found that Arizona schools had 1,443.66 open teaching positions by Aug. 30, 2019, and many schools hired long-term substitute teachers to fill that gap.
Support grows nationwide for paying teachers more. See more national education news here
Most Americans believe that K-12 schools deserve more money, the federal government should chip in a bigger share of education costs and a college education — especially at community colleges — should be tuition-free, according a nationwide education poll released (Aug. 20)
Film: Challenges of raising a family on a teacher’s salary continue. See more state education news here
Arizona’s state test scores are improving, but only by a few percentage points.
Early AzMERIT standardized test results obtained by The Arizona Republic show small increases in the percentage of students passing the test in most grade levels in reading and math.
But the scores still show more than half the students in most categories, including in third-grade reading, aren’t passing the test.
Navajo Nation issues request to Congress to restore federal funding for scholarships. See more state education news here
On March 25, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer voiced concern about the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate funding for the Higher Education Grant within the Bureau of Indian Education’s FY 2020 budget request.“The Higher Education Grant is a huge benefit for thousands of Navajo students each year and for the future of the Navajo Nation,” Nez said. “It’s very disappointing that these funds continue to come under threat by this administration. We will look to our leaders in the House and Senate to restore these funds during the budget process.”
Study: Poverty, Location Factors In Arizona Student Literacy. See more state education news here
A study of literacy programs for Arizona third-graders found that children who live in poverty or attend rural schools are at a disadvantage in learning to read. The report evaluated how effective reading instruction programs were for third-grade students based on a number of key metrics derived from AzMERIT, Arizona’s statewide learning assessment test. Study author Robert Vagi is a researcher at the University of Minnesota; he said economic and geographic factors play a significant role in a student’s ability to achieve age-appropriate literacy.
The shrinking number of special ed teachers adds to schools’ pressures. See more national education news here
The number of special education teachers nationally has dropped by more than 17 percent over the past decade, a worrisome trend in a career path that has seen chronic shortages for years.
An analysis of federal data by the Education Week Research Center shows that while the number of special education teachers was dropping, the number of students with disabilities ages 6 to 21 declined by only about 1 percent over the same time period. And as a whole, the number of teachers in all fields has gone up slightly over the past decade, as has overall enrollment.
Number of Homeless Students Soars. See more national education news here
THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS in kindergarten through the 12th grade who are homeless has increased by 70 percent over the last decade, according to new federal data that also suggests it shows no signs of slowing.
The report, published this month by the National Center for Homeless Education, housed at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, provides a three-year snapshot of homeless from the 2014-15 school year through the 2016-17 school year using federal data reported annually to the Department of Education by states.
