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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
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Court documents reveal how L.A. teachers union gained upper hand in pandemic negotiations, limiting instruction time

As the Los Angeles Unified School District prepares to reopen elementary schools for the first time in 13 months, recently released court documents show that while the district pushed for more instructional time for students earlier this year, the union successfully bargained for a reduced teacher workday — and a lot more of what it wanted. On...
By Linda Jacobson | March 30, 2021
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Cardona summit shines light on districts with successful reopening stories and ‘real-world evidence’ of following CDC guidelines

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will travel to local communities over the next few weeks in a continued push to get more schools to reopen before the Biden Administration’s self-imposed 100-day deadline. “My job, I can do it better if I’m listening to what is happening in the field,” Cardona told viewers during a summit...
By Linda Jacobson | March 25, 2021
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House vote sets stage for approval of sweeping pandemic relief package, with $126 billion for reopening schools, learning loss

The House is soon expected to pass what President Joe Biden calls an “urgently needed” funding package that sends $126 billion to K-12 schools — almost twice as much provided in COVID-19 relief last year and significantly more than they received to recover from the Great Recession. The vote, expected by Wednesday, sets the stage for Biden...
By Linda Jacobson | March 9, 2021
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One year into pandemic, far fewer young students are on target to learn how to read, tests show

Twenty percent fewer kindergartners are on track to learn how to read than their peers were at this time last year, and most haven’t made much progress since the fall, according to new assessment data released in February. Thirty-seven percent of this year’s kindergartners are on-track in early reading skills, compared to 55 percent during the 2019-20...
By Linda Jacobson | March 9, 2021