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Osborne: COVID slide is going to make the usual summer slide even worse. Time to move to year-round school schedules

A Gallup survey done in early April found that 83 percent of parents reported their children were involved in online distance learning. But Gallup conducted the survey online, so it excluded families with no internet connection. That means perhaps a third of students are not participating in remote learning this spring. For them, “summer” will...
By David Osborne | April 30, 2020
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Williams: The politics — and economics — around why we should make pre-K universal are changing

After a flurry of proposals early in the presidential primary campaign, as predicted, public education reassumed its usual place near the bottom of the national political hierarchy. The dynamics followed the normal pattern from recent years. While plenty of the presidential debates — and intervening media coverage — featured discussion of higher education affordability and...
By Conor Williams | April 29, 2020
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LAUSD has spent more than $100 million on Chromebooks and iPads, but an escalating technology shortage is delaying arrival of key equipment for educators across America

School districts in need of a sudden rush of technology will likely have to wait. During a virtual meeting of the Ossining Union Free School District in New York, Superintendent Raymond Sanchez told the school board he is aware of a potential for a five-month gap between placing an order for new technology and receiving...
By Tim Newcomb | April 28, 2020
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Teacher voice: Once I removed barriers to online access, my students were able to participate in remote learning in meaningful ways

“Oscar, are you there? Make sure to unmute yourself please!” Like thousands of teachers across the nation, I muttered this phrase in my new virtual classroom. Curriculum and instruction have taken on a completely different meaning as schools attempt to navigate the new digital learning environment. My colleagues and I are doing our best to...
By Joshua Brown | April 27, 2020
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One UC student’s proposal for how to help school libraries reopen — and keep kids reading — while LAUSD campuses are closed

The transition to distance learning has caused unprecedented disruption to our education system. Many low-income students do not have internet access necessary for taking classes online. While some districts and charter schools are distributing devices and hotspots, in others, students are making do with paper packets. With all this chaos, though, we still live in...
By Bruce Arao | April 23, 2020
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As impacts from the coronavirus shutdown multiply, state & district school chiefs demand boost to ‘woefully insufficient’ federal funds

As educators around the country continue trying to keep students engaged during the coronavirus shutdown while also bracing for what could be the worst economic slump since the Great Depression, 29 state education commissioners and district superintendents have a message for federal officials: schools need more support. The group — eight state education commissioners and...
By Zoë Kirsch | April 22, 2020
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For undocumented students, coronavirus pandemic brings learning disruptions — and economic panic — with few avenues for help

Miriam hopes to attend college and become an elementary school teacher. But right now, she’s worried that she won’t graduate from high school. Like many campuses across the U.S., her high school in San Antonio, Texas, transitioned to online instruction last month amid the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to a school-issued hotspot, Miriam has internet at...
By Mark Keierleber | April 21, 2020
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More than half of students are not tuning in to online classes, informal teacher survey shows

As remote learning ramps up and more states announce that school closures will last through the end of the academic year, a new teacher survey suggests many students are still missing from their virtual classrooms during the coronavirus pandemic. Fifty-five percent of teachers said more than half of their students have not been tuning in...
By Laura Fay | April 20, 2020
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Tyre & Weinberg: During pandemic, parents are learning their kids can’t write very well. The dirty secret: They weren’t taught how. Some strategies to help

The COVID-19 pandemic means kids are learning at home now. But parents are also getting a new kind of education. Historically, schools have functioned as a kind of black box. Many teachers and administrators wanted parent engagement — but it was available only to a point. Most commonly, parents were invited to see the results...
By Peg Tyre and Phil Weinberg | April 16, 2020
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College costs may be a top concern amid COVID-19 economic crash, but here’s why picking a cheaper school now may actually leave students worse off

College affordability will be top of mind for many as the Coronavirus pandemic continues to upend family finances. But the temptation to save on college costs now may have consequences later in a student’s life, a new report cautions. At issue is that academically talented students who choose to attend community colleges — which tend...
By Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters | April 15, 2020