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Updated CDC guidance relaxing mask requirements for some students, but not others, puts school districts in tough spot

Friday’s updated school reopening guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts districts in a tough spot — do they require all students to wear masks indoors or just those who haven’t been vaccinated? District leaders say it would be difficult to implement a policy where masks are optional for some but not...
By Linda Jacobson | July 14, 2021
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Can right answers be wrong? Latest clash over ‘white supremacy culture’ unfolds in unlikely arena: Math class

To learn the geometric concept of transformations this year, Crystal Watson’s eighth-graders drew up blueprints of apartments. As they worked, she asked them to imagine designing affordable housing for Black and Hispanic families like theirs in Cincinnati who have been priced out of their neighborhoods. But when she had them add a hallway down the...
By Linda Jacobson | June 29, 2021
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Biden’s $20 billion education equity proposal would create ‘powerful incentive’ for states to close funding gaps between districts

Educators welcome President Joe Biden’s plan to spend $20 billion — on top of the federal government’s current funding for high-poverty districts — to address the needs of schools with the greatest concentrations of disadvantaged students. But with the new administration already getting a late start on the budget process and Republicans cringing at the...
By Linda Jacobson | June 9, 2021
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Deja vu as Ed Department once again revisits the contentious landscape of Title IX

A group of girls from Berkeley High School will go before a federal judge in California this Thursday to argue that former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos left victims of sexual assault or harassment with fewer protections and shielded those accused of misconduct. The state of Texas, led by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, has tried to join...
By Linda Jacobson | June 8, 2021
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‘No one knew we were homeless’: New relief funds fuel efforts to find students lost during virtual school

Portia and her two boys were living at the St. Ambrose Family Shelter in Dorchester, Massachusetts, located in an old Catholic church, when the pandemic hit. To protect her family from the virus, she moved in with her mother in a one-bedroom apartment. But with a baby brother in the same room and unreliable Wi-Fi,...
By Linda Jacobson | May 25, 2021
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Immigrant, bilingual special educator named National Teacher of Year, says she’s devoted to finding ‘all our students’ strengths’

Children with special needs are among those whose learning has suffered the most because of the pandemic. But that’s not what Juliana Urtubey sees when she looks at her students at Booker Elementary in Las Vegas. “Our brains work in slightly different ways. Our job is to find all of our students’ strengths,” she said...
By Linda Jacobson | May 17, 2021
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Biden earns high marks from educators on his first 100 days, but some note there are still ‘kids sitting at home’

In February, the Baltimore City Public Schools allocated over $9 million for COVID-19 testing to ease the concerns of teachers and staff about returning to the classroom. But then President Joe Biden announced he would spend $10 billion for routine screening to help schools reopen as part of the American Rescue Plan. Baltimore CEO Sonja...
By Linda Jacobson | April 27, 2021
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‘Urgency is everywhere’: 2022 federal budget plan includes major increases for community schools, Title I

Over the past year, school districts across the country have delivered meals to families, connected them to mental health counselors and served as central hubs for information on rental assistance — operating much like “community schools” that are designed to pull together a variety of services for students under one roof. Now President Joe Biden...
By Linda Jacobson | April 14, 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