This message was sent to ##Email## May 21, 2020       Home  |  Membership  |  Events  |  Advocacy  |  Careers  |  Academy Archive  |   Subscribe      ALAS EVENTS Congratulations to the ALAS Cohort IX on Completing the SLA Program on May 16th, 2020! ALAS The ALAS Superintendents Leadership Academy program continues to be the premier leadership academy in the nation, due to its competitive and balanced cohort selection of candidates. ALAS seeks dedicated and aspiring Latin/o/a/x superintendents in their development of the knowledge and networking skills necessary to lead a school district. The selection process is highly competitive due to the limited number of participants as designed by the cohort model. Apply to join ALAS SLA Cohort X! Application deadline closes May 31st, 2020 Scholarships Available: For the 2020/2021 Cohort: $500 scholarships will be provided upon acceptance to the program View the 2020 - 2021 Session Calendar Apply Now    SCHOOL LEADERS NEWS Leveraging technology can help English language learners graduate EdTech Magazine Educators are always looking for ways to meet the needs of English language learners in their school district. After all, the number of ELLs entering U.S. public schools continues to rise. In fact, they are the fastest-growing student population, according to the National Education Association, and by 2025, are expected to make up an estimated 25% of public school students. Yet when it comes to academic achievement, ELLs still struggle to keep up with their non-ELL peers. Their graduation rate of 67% falls behind that of non-ELLs, which was 85% in the 2015-2016 school year, the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education.  READ MORE COVID-19 testing key to reopening schools, health officials tell Senators Education Week Without a vaccine to halt the spread of the coronavirus, widespread testing and tracing of the illness will be essential to ensure public confidence that children can safely return to school in the fall, federal health officials told a Senate committee. Such testing will be necessary to determine if states are ready to ease restrictions that have shuttered schools and businesses and to trace inevitable reemergence of the coronavirus in some areas after schools welcome students back, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's chief epidemiologist, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee.  READ MORE    SPONSORED CONTENT Benchmark Education Free Bilingual Online Library for Four Months District leaders can now arrange a free, four-month subscription to 3,500 e-books in English or Spanish. These leveled literacy and content-area e-books for K-8 students can be used at home or in school. Engaging formats and topics help students make more progress and avoid the summer slump. Click to Request Free Online Library or More Information.   Many educators want to reboot the US school system By Sheilamary Koch (commentary) Today's colossal interruption in class as usual has inspired teachers around the country to boldly speak out about changes they want to see in education. They're urging drastic measures to solve problems magnified during this time of COVID-19-related closures — before things get swept under the rug again.  READ MORE Schools are opening worldwide, providing a model for the US Edutopia Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report setting out guidelines for opening child-care programs, day camps and K-12 schools — or the report leaked, depending on who you read. The guidelines break school reopening into three phases — each with incrementally more relaxed rules, if infection rates are sufficiently low — but the big picture provides some good news: the recommendations reveal a path forward for schools to reopen, albeit with restrictions.  READ MORE How to certify teachers when schools are closed eSchool News During the COVID-19 impact, many aspects of student life have come to a grinding halt. To help address an acute shortage of accredited teachers, even under these extraordinary circumstances, Alliant University's California School of Education has been forming partnerships to appropriately provide alternative approaches for teacher candidates to meet clinical practice, field experience, and performance assessment requirements. In collaboration with these partners, our instructors and leaders have been working to develop tools and best practices to not just meet but exceed requirements.  READ MORE When schools reopen, it shouldn't be business as usual EdSurge Even amid the uncertainty of what the school year will look like in the fall, teachers are itching to get back to some semblance of normalcy. Greeting students at the door each morning, chatting with them about their weekend, providing in-person feedback on projects and facilitating student-led conversations are among the many joys we miss during this pandemic.  READ MORE    TECHNOLOGY Survey: K-12 tech leaders prioritize cybersecurity, but many underestimate risks Education Week School technology leaders appreciate the rising cybersecurity threats in K-12 education, but many still are not taking all the steps necessary to better protect their schools, concludes a new annual report on ed-tech leadership. The report, by the Consortium for School Networking, points that only 18% of respondents said their school or district has a full-time employee dedicated to cybersecurity; and fewer than 20% marked any items on a list of cybersecurity threats as "high-risk" from their perspective.  READ MORE Addressing the remote learning needs of your English language learners We Are Teachers Many teachers lack the tools and support to adequately meet the needs of emergent bilinguals, and that's become even more of a challenge with distance learning. Newcomer students already face a host of barriers. Now that we've moved instruction mostly online, we have to get more creative in continuing these students' education.  READ MORE Where to find the right network support to maintain VR experiences District Administration Magazine While virtual reality takes students (and teachers) to many places around the world they would otherwise never go, finding where to find the right network support to maintain these virtual experiences can take time. At Round Rock ISD, educators first needed to find out if their IT infrastructure could support it before adopting VR technology four years ago.  READ MORE Will months of remote learning worsen students' attention problems? Education Week The outbreak of the coronavirus isn't the first time Robert Spall has had to learn from home. The 13-year-old and his mom, Kirsten Spall, a high school teacher from Sacramento, Calif., were once "reluctant homeschoolers" after Robert was pulled out of a handful of schools for focus and behavioral issues — all before the 1st grade. "He didn't respond to normal redirection. He didn't respond to normal behavioral strategies, like giving choices," Kirsten Spall said.  READ MORE How online learning research can improve remote instruction EdSurge Looking for an easy way to become a better online instructor? At a time when millions of educators have been thrown into remote learning with no formal training, any answer to that question might seem too good to be true. But for now, some experts say to start simple: Take a short online course, for example, to see what students experience.  READ MORE    POLICY CORNER DeVos appoints new director for English learner office Education Week U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has appointed Lorena Orozco McElwain to lead the federal office for English language learner education, shaking up a long-standing tradition of selecting candidates with significant experience in bilingual or federal education policy. While she once worked as a bilingual education teacher, McElwain, unlike her predecessors, made her mark as a high-ranking civil servant in several agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, Library of Congress, and U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Since 2018, she had served as a political appointee in the Agriculture Department.  READ MORE An overview of education policies proposed by Trump, Biden By Patrick Gleeson (commentary) In a recent article, I compared the views of President Trump and former Vice President Biden on K-12 charter schools. Let's compare their views on six of the remaining important education issues as we approach what promises to be an unusually combative election. For starters, how much money is in each candidate's education budget is almost certainly the most significant indicator of their positions on almost every other education issue. Without funding, no education initiative, no matter how well-designed, can be implemented effectively.  READ MORE Post COVID-19 advocacy Language Magazine This spring, our personal and professional lives were complicated by the unknown. We learned about flexibility and new routines. Some of us still feel overwhelmed. In spite of these realities, it is time to think about strategies for post-pandemic advocacy for languages and language programs. When the pandemic fades, priorities will be transformed. With students falling behind in the core subjects, language learning is likely to be scrutinized and will be vulnerable. Even mainstay language study in the U.S.'s default second language — namely Spanish — is likely to suffer.  READ MORE    EDUCATION HEADLINES How school will change when kids return to classrooms U.S. News & World Report When schools reopen this fall — if they reopen this fall — students and teachers will not be returning to the classroom learning environments they left behind in March, when school districts across the country shuttered for more than 55 million children. Some of the most obvious differences will be the increased sanitization of classrooms and buses, teachers and children wearing masks and other personal protective gear, frequent temperature checks and hand-washing and new rules that allow for as much social distancing as possible.  READ MORE Portland Public Schools supporting dual-language students, families during distance learning KPTV-TV School districts across the state are doing what they can to keep kids engaged and learning during this time of social distancing. For dual-language students and families, this can be an even bigger challenge. At Rigler Elementary School in Portland, about half of the 300 or so students are Spanish speakers. "As a parent, you need to be able to support your child in their education to feel like this is worthwhile," Principal Myrna Munoz said.  READ MORE Curbing teacher burnout during the pandemic Edutopia It's hard to believe two months have passed since Edutopia contributor Carly Berwick wrote about her school's sudden closure for the coronavirus — our very first article on the topic. At the time, her district in Bergen County, New Jersey, was ahead of most, but within days, school systems across the country, like toppling dominoes, rapidly followed suit.  READ MORE Critical concepts in distance learning for multilingual learners By Erick Herrmann (commentary) The current state of affairs has caused a shifting tide from face-to-face instruction to online learning and out-of-the-classroom learning through online platforms; apps; paper packets being sent home; letters and communications; and other creative means to keep students learning. Educators have done a phenomenal job all over the world in transitioning to remote learning and are working diligently to meet the needs of each student in their classes. But for emergent bilingual and multilingual students, many issues have arisen in terms of meeting their instructional needs.  READ MORE Study: Student anxiety, depression increasing during school closures EdSource School closures were intended to keep students safe during the pandemic, but for many, it's ushered in a different set of dangers: anxiety, depression and other serious mental health conditions. School counselors, psychologists and social workers have been trying to help students virtually since campuses closed, listening to their struggles and offering advice on how to navigate the complex difficulties they're facing. But what students need most right now — in-person support — is impossible to deliver, they said.  READ MORE     CAREERS New Postings Every Week on ALAS Website! 05/20/20 — Chief of Staff, Syphax Education Center, Arlington, VA 05/20/20 — Panel Manager, Office of Family Assistance, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families 05/19/20 — Executive Director, American School Counselor Association, Alexandria, VA 05/19/20 — Superintendent, Austin Independent School District, Austin, TX 05/16/20 — Superintendent, St. John the Baptist Parish Public Schools, Reserve, LA 05/15/20 — Executive Director — PK-12 School Leadership, Fort Worth Independent School District, Fort Worth, TX 05/15/20 — Superintendent, Martin County School District, Martin County, FL 05/15/20 — Superintendent, Piner-Olivet Union School District, Santa Rosa, CA 05/13/20 — .5 Spanish Bilingual Title I Literacy Interventionist, Urbana School District #116, Urbana, IL 05/13/20 — Assistant Superintendent, Lower Merion School District, Montgomery County, PA 05/13/20 — Elementary Dual Language Teacher – Spanish, Urbana School District #116, Urbana, IL 05/12/20 — School Designer, West, EL Education, CA 05/11/20 — Chief Performance Officer, Hartford Public Schools, Hartford, CT 05/11/20 — Principal, Alfred E. Burr Middle School (Grades 6-8), Hartford Public Schools, Hartford, CT 05/11/20 — Principal, Global Communications Academy (Grades Kindergarten-8), Hartford Public Schools, Hartford, CT 05/11/20 — Principal, Thomas J. McDonough Middle School (Grades 6-8), Hartford Public Schools, Hartford, CT 05/11/20 — Regional Assistant Instructional Superintendent, Denver Public Schools, Denver, CO VISIT ALAS WEBSITE FOR MORE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES & INFORMATION! ALAS: Leaders in Equity Update Connect with the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) Recent Issues | Unsubscribe | Advertise | Web Version  Colby Horton, MultiView, Executive Vice-President, Publishing/Marketing, 469-420-2601 | Media Kit Hailey Golden, Education Editor, 469-420-2603 | Contribute news Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents P.O. Box 65204 Washington, DC 20035  | Tel: 202-466-0808 | Contact Us  Learn how to add us to your safe sender list so our emails get to your inbox. 7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063