News From the Field
Catch top headlines sharing relevant news and stories about Linked Learning practices, schools, and students.
Wanted: Students to Write About This School Year
If you’re interested in having your students write a 300-500 word essay for EdWeek, respond to this prompt by Oct. 4: How does it feel to be back in school? What feels good, bad, or strange? What are you looking forward to and what are you worried about? What are teachers doing to make you feel welcome, safe, and supported, and what more could they do?
James Kvaal Confirmed as Under Secretary of Education
James Kvaal is the newly appointed U.S. Under Secretary of Education, a position tasked with overseeing programs and policies related to postsecondary education, vocational and adult education, and federal student aid.
Meet certificates and “microcredentials” — they could be the future of higher education
In recent years, “microcredentials” and badges have been discussed as a means to certify marketplace skills and knowledge. There is even speculation that they will replace or erode degrees.
Legislature reaffirms quarantined students must be in independent study to be funded
California state lawmakers adopted a measure intended to make it easier for districts to educate students during a Covid quarantine, along with a way for districts to get funding if they can prove they tried but failed to find the staff needed to meet their obligation.
Enhancing the Impact of the Build Back Better Act Integrating College in High School Programs
College in high school programs, such as dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, and early college high school, are proven mechanisms for increasing postsecondary program enrollment and completion and an essential strategy for addressing the serious impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on postsecondary enrollment and success.
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.