News From the Field
Catch top headlines sharing relevant news and stories about Linked Learning practices, schools, and students.
Biden Sounds Alarm on Youth Mental Health, Urges Americans to Aid Schools’ COVID Recovery
The nation must make new commitments to respond to an unprecedented mental health crisis that has had particularly harsh effects on children and teens, who have faced rising rates of depression and anxiety amid pandemic isolation, President Joe Biden said Tuesday.
Superintendent Turnover Is a Real Thing. How Bad Is It?
News reports point to high local instances of turnover at the top job—a third of Maryland superintendents potentially not returning, nearly one in five positions open at the start of this school year in Oregon, a “great exodus” per the Texas Tribune of 10 Dallas-Ft. Worth region superintendents.
The New Problem Facing Urban School Districts
Big city district leaders across the nation may have to learn how to downsize, writes Van Schoales, senior policy director of the Keystone Policy Center, and Brian Eschbacher, former executive director of planning and enrollment in the Denver public schools.
Exits by Black and Hispanic Teachers Pose a Threat to Learning Recovery
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System reported a 26% increase in the number of teacher retirements in the second half of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. Of those surveyed, more than half cited challenges of teaching during the pandemic as their main reason for leaving.
5 Ways Rural School Leaders Can Create Workforce Opportunities for Students
While jobs returned at high rates in 2021, most of that growth was experienced in metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, rural America in April 2021 had essentially the same number of jobs as in 2010, and that’s bad news for the nearly 1 in 5 students in the United States who attend a rural school and will thus be much more likely to miss out on high-quality, work-based learning opportunities.
A Tenuous Balance: Supporting Students While Pushing Their Learning Recovery
Getting students interested and excited about learning—a challenge that predates the pandemic—is harder than ever, according to a December EdWeek Research Center survey of 630 teachers across the country. Teachers, counselors, and district leaders alike acknowledge that a lot of these challenges existed prior to the pandemic’s start.
Teachers of Color Are Linked to Social-Emotional, Academic Gains for All Students
Teachers of color tend to bring specific practices and mindsets into the classroom that benefit all students, a new study finds—the latest addition to the body of research that emphasizes the importance of recruiting and retaining these teachers, who make up just 21% of the workforce.
Student Mental Health Is Overwhelming Schools. Can Congress Help?
Several senators expressed grave concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on child well-being. These worries were backed up by medical professionals who told the panel about sharp increases in reports of children struggling with mental health.
How Schools Can Support Leaders of Color, According to Experts
While about 53 percent of public school students are people of color, about 80 percent of the educators and administrators are white. To ensure that school and district leaders more closely reflect their students requires attention and investment at every point along the talent development pipeline, from supporting young Black teachers, to providing them opportunities to move into leadership, to giving them the tools they need to succeed in those roles, said Baron R. Davis, superintendent of the Richland School District Two, in Columbia, S.C..