News From the Field
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Cure for loss of SAT/ACT tests: Stop banning high school kids from college courses
We’ll improve college readiness if we let everyone take AP or IB, argues Jay Matthews.
California will give a short version of its standardized math and English tests next spring
The “Smarter Balanced” standardized tests in math and English language arts that California students will take in the spring to measure their academic progress will have fewer questions and take less time than the pre-Covid versions.
To Achieve Educational Justice, We Need More Black Teachers
While Black students account for 15 percent of all public schools students in the U.S., Black teachers make up just 7 percent of the teacher workforce. Worse, teachers who identify as Black men make up less than 2 percent of the workforce. To reach proportional parity between Black teachers and students, we would need 280,000 more Black teachers in our public schools.
LA Unified becomes largest school district to mandate Covid vaccine for students
The Los Angeles Unified school board voted Thursday to require all students 12 and older be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by January, making it the largest public school district in the nation to mandate coronavirus vaccines for students.
Far fewer prospective college students submitted admissions test scores last year, report finds
Only about two-fifths of students who applied to college during the 2020-21 school year using the Common Application included their SAT or ACT scores, a sharp decline from the prior year, when more than three-fourths of college prospects did so.
High school ethnic studies bill approved by California Legislature
High schoolers in California will be required to take an ethnic studies course in order to graduate, beginning in 2029-30.
Quarantining students could get more instruction with proposed independent study changes
The state legislature proposed changes to the independent study laws that had been disrupting school reopenings across California. Educators say the revisions will help but don’t go far enough.
Groups request details on ESSER spending for underserved students
Several education and civil rights organizations are urging the U.S. Department of Education to collect comprehensive state and district spending data for COVID-19 relief funds to ensure the money is reaching students who have been historically underserved or who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
Research finds ethnic studies in San Francisco had enduring impact
Research released recently found that the benefits for San Francisco Unified students who took an ethnic studies course in ninth grade lasted throughout high school, resulting in higher attendance, higher graduation rates and increased enrollment in college, compared with similarly matched students who didn’t take the course.