News From the Field
Catch top headlines sharing relevant news and stories about Linked Learning practices, schools, and students.
SEL can strengthen the soft skills employers seek
As schools seed SEL skills across curricula, educators may want to focus on parents, helping them understand the value for teaching these tools in the classroom, Sheldon Berman, lead superintendent for social-emotional learning at AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and Linda Darling-Hammond, president and CEO of Learning Policy Institute, write in a blog for LPI, citing a study from the Fordham Institute.
'Great Resignation' underscores need for access to career exploration and work-based opportunities
Hands-on exposure and focus on essential soft skills are needed to produce a generation better prepared for and fulfilled by work, two experts write.
Rural educators dispel myths, outline 4 strategies for equitable policy
Speakers at the National Forum to Advance Rural Education shared hope for the future of rural education and how to improve it.
Counselors say students' SEL skills just as important as academic development
Students' self-management skills, such as self-discipline, self-control and self-motivation, are some of the most difficult social and emotional practices to learn but also the most important to develop, according to a report issued jointly by the American School Counselor Association and ACT, a nonprofit that provides college and career readiness programs and assessments.
Chronic absenteeism deepens, California data shows
As statewide school attendance data from 2020-21 trickles in, an analysis of 17 California school districts reveals chronic absenteeism is worsening this academic year.
Incentives, morale boosters crucial to curb K-12 teacher, other workforce shortages
Higher value must be placed on teachers to improve retention as shortages deepen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Stephanie Burroughs, a K-12 curriculum leader and administrator in Massachusetts, writes in an article for ASCD.
Student mental health days offer chance to recharge, learn to manage stress
Letting students miss a day of school to emotionally recharge when they are feeling overwhelmed has many benefits, but parents and educators need to be cautious that the time off isn't a procrastination tactic or an attempt to avoid situations that cause anxiety, writes Rae Jacobson for the Child Mind Institute.
For ed leaders, school-family relationships key to pandemic recovery
While the pandemic has increased opportunities and enthusiasm for school systems to redesign approaches for academic and non-academic supports, the funding pressures and exhaustion weighing on educators and families are obstacles that will need to be addressed to effect long-sustaining change, participants in The State of the American School District virtual panel said.
Learning Policy Institute outlines strategies to improve equity through restorative justice practices
As school leaders work to move away from exclusionary disciplinary policies and toward restorative approaches focused on relationship-building, a Learning Policy Institute report illustrates strategies both informal, like the use of shared vocabulary, and formal, like restorative circles and conferences.