-
Long a stranger to the spotlight, child tax credit earns embrace of both parties
The Child Tax Credit isn’t a subject you’d expect to receive much attention in the middle of a heated presidential campaign. Somewhat technocratic in nature, invisible to a large share of the electorate, the benefit was established in 1997 to provide relief to parents while their kids were young. Its reach is impressive, granting up...
By Kevin Mahnken | August 28, 2024
-
LA Unified is still struggling with chronic absenteeism years after the pandemic. Here’s why this matters
A week before classes at Los Angeles Unified began earlier this month, attendance workers tasked with fighting chronic absenteeism fanned out across the city, visiting the homes of children to make sure they’d show up for the first day of instruction. Knocking on the doors where kids had repeatedly missed school, the workers told parents...
By Ben Chapman | August 27, 2024
-
Poll: Americans want next president to focus on workforce prep, hiring teachers
Heading into a divisive national election, a new poll shows that when it comes to education, at least, Americans overwhelmingly agree that the next president should focus on two things: preparing students for careers and attracting top teachers who will stay in the profession. “There are clear priorities that overwhelming numbers of Americans on both...
By Linda Jacobson | August 26, 2024
-
5 updates on teens from the CDC: Declining sadness, but more bullying & violence
Depression and suicidal activity have decreased slightly for teens since 2021, but simultaneously there have been alarming increases in violence, bullying and school avoidance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2023, two in ten teens were bullied at school and one in ten did not attend due to safety concerns, 4%...
By Marianna McMurdock | August 21, 2024
-
8 things to know about Tim Walz, the Democratic ticket’s top teacher
Correction appended Aug. 19 Tampon Tim? Try Teflon Tim. In the days since Vice President Kamala Harris tapped him as her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — a popular former rural high school social studies teacher/football coach-turned-politician — has emerged, on education matters, as a master needle-threader. To wit: In 2023, with Democrats in...
By Beth Hawkins | August 20, 2024
-
Is AI in schools promising or overhyped? Potentially both, new reports suggest
Are U.S. public schools lagging behind other countries like Singapore and South Korea in preparing teachers and students for the boom of generative artificial intelligence? Or are our educators bumbling into AI half-blind, putting students’ learning at risk? Or is it, perhaps, both? Two new reports, coincidentally released on the same day last week, offer...
By Greg Toppo | August 19, 2024
-
So your school wants to ban cellphones. Now what?
At lunch last school year, sixth graders at Bayside Middle School in Virginia Beach could be heard shouting “Uno” and tapping out sound patterns on a Simon game console. Getting students hooked on classic games is one way Principal Sham Bevel has tried to soothe their separation anxiety after the district banned cellphones two years...
By Linda Jacobson | August 15, 2024
-
Building a generation of ‘math people’: Inside K-8 program boosting confidence
A new online math program is flipping traditional math instruction on its head, doing away with instructions and celebrating mistakes. Teachers say Struggly, available for at-home or classroom use, is a game changer for K-8 students discouraged by math or having a hard time with traditional tasks because of language barriers or learning disabilities. In...
By Marianna McMurdock | August 14, 2024
-
An LA tutoring program includes fun to empower LAUSD students’ writing
When 826LA development manager Alma Carillo finished a recent tutoring session with an LA Unified student, she was met with an unexpected surprise. “I remember after we bound his book and handed it to him, he stared at it, and then he looked up at me, and then he stared back and was like, ‘I...
By Sara Balanta | August 13, 2024
-
The parent report card: Teachers get an ‘A.’ The system? Not so much.
Parents from across the political spectrum report greater confidence in their kids’ teachers and schools than they do in the national education system at large, with the overwhelming majority (82%) giving teachers an ‘A’ or ‘B’ for how they’ve handled education this year. The results come from a survey that polled 1,518 parents of K-12...
By Amanda Geduld | August 8, 2024