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Study: Chicago tutoring program delivered huge math gains; personalization may be the key

A year after mayors and governors announced the first school closures related to COVID-19, many have turned to personalized tutoring to cope with disruptions to learning. Families that could afford to hire private instructors began doing so even before the 2020-21 school year began, while governments in Europe launched full-fledged programs to work with thousands...
By Kevin Mahnken | March 11, 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
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‘Teacher cams’ could revolutionize education after the pandemic ends, but some critics see a massive student privacy risk

On any given school day, just one or two students show up in-person for Houston teacher Trevor Toteve’s lectures. With the bulk of his class opting to learn remotely during the pandemic, several beam themselves into the classroom via webcam. But most students appear as static, black boxes. Toteve urges the high schoolers in his...
By Mark Keierleber | March 8, 2021
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What do predictions of ‘herd immunity’ mean for schools?

After nearly a year of disastrous COVID news, it emerged in mid-February like a light at the end of the tunnel. Infections began dramatically falling and “herd immunity,” some experts began to say, could spell the end of the pandemic in the not-so-distant future. At some point this year — estimates range from mid-summer to...
By Asher Lehrer-Small | March 4, 2021
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After year of ‘peril’ for democracy, scholars release new framework for history and civics in schools

2020 was the year that U.S. history, and clashing perspectives on it from left and right, became a campaign issue. First, President Trump and his fellow Republicans attacked the New York Times’s controversial 1619 Project, accusing its authors of dishonestly tearing down American ideals in a history curriculum that has been adopted in thousands of...
By Kevin Mahnken | March 3, 2021
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Influx of unaccompanied minors along southern border could pose test for schools

Thousands of English language learners could be headed for American public schools in the coming months due to recent changes in U.S. immigration policy and devastating natural disasters in Central and South America. Their arrival could pose a challenge for local school systems, particularly poor districts that might not have enough teachers or space to...
By Jo Napolitano | March 2, 2021
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A pre-COVID education study with big implications for remote learning during the pandemic: When parents take over, children give up easier

* One lace loops to make the trunk. A squirrel runs around the tree, jumps into a hole at the bottom, and comes out the other side. Pull it though and… huzzah! * Teaching a child to tie their shoes isn’t always easy. If you’ve embarked on this painstaking task, watching as little fingers fumble...
By Asher Lehrer-Small | March 1, 2021
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Virtual art classes, outdoor vocational programs: How jails and prisons are evolving amid the pandemic

This article, which originally appeared at The Marshall Project, is being co-published here via the SoJo Exchange from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems. When his father died last year of an overdose, Rodney Watson thought he would miss the funeral and his last chance to say...
By Keri Blakinger, The Marshall Project | February 25, 2021
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Blatz: Biden must make student loan forgiveness a priority — not just for graduates, but for the economy and for long-term fairness

There is a lot of talk about student loan debt forgiveness right now, but this is actually less about canceling debt and more about investing in workers and the economy while developing sustainable solutions to underlying, systemic problems. Education is a fundamental driver of economic development because it is all about investing in people, and...
By Jennifer Blatz | February 24, 2021