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Education DIVE
America's public education system was largely caught off guard as schools were forced by the sudden onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic to shut their doors and transition to distance learning over the past two months. With the number of states keeping schools closed through the academic year rising as the projected length of quarantines and stay-at-home orders grow, many administrators continue to grapple with a number of challenges and unanswered questions: How will students in need of meal assistance receive food? What should count in regard to assignments? How can students lacking internet access, those with disabilities, and English learners continue to be served appropriately?
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District Administration Magazine
There are over 30 million children nationwide who participate in the National School Lunch and Breakfast program every day. The latest statistics show that 75% of them struggle with food insecurity and receive free or reduced-price meals. COVID-19 and nationwide school closures have changed everything about how these children, who depend on school meals, will be fed. It has also impacted meal preparation and serving methods.
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Education Week
In one global wave, fears of the novel coronavirus have swept more than 1.5 billion children out of school. A new study of nearly 100 countries' responses to the pandemic suggests the United States can take a lesson, particularly from the early-exposed Asian countries, on how schools can help their students and families weather what may be weeks or months away from their classrooms.
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EdSurge
At the end of March, our team at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, along with our colleagues at the Collaborative for Social Emotional and Academic Learning, known as CASEL, launched a survey to unpack the emotional lives of teachers during the COVID-19 crisis. In the span of just three days, over 5,000 U.S. teachers responded to the survey. We asked them to describe, in their own words, the three most frequent emotions they felt each day.
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Education Next
Since we most recently updated this figure on April 2, two states — California and South Dakota — have announced they are keeping their school buildings closed for the rest of the school year. Three other states — Louisiana, New York and Wyoming — took more incremental steps, pushing scheduled opening dates into May.
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Education Week
Officials are concerned that the coronavirus crisis will hinder efforts to ensure a complete count on the U.S. Census, which is used to allocate billions of dollars of federal funding to schools. That's a big deal for the schools and districts, already concerned about low levels of state revenue as the country faces a recession. The complications with the count come as schools around the country have closed their buildings to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
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District Administration Magazine (commentary)
Greg Bagby, a contributor for District Administration Magazine, writes: "From my early years as a classroom teacher until today as a district leader, I have always had the pleasure of working with phenomenal leaders. I used their guidance to shape my role as a school principal for 10 years, and I use it today as I continue to work side by side with administrators and teachers, coaching them on technology for the Hamilton County Department of Education in Chattanooga, Tennessee."
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Champions is an opportunity to exceed every parent’s expectations of what before and after school can be. Our programs immerse K–6 students in an inquiry-based, whole-child learning environment that supports academic and social-emotional learning. Support your teachers’ goals outside the school day without costing your district’s budget. Learn more
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THE Journal
Two education organizations have created a free Apple iOS app to help children understand how far they should be from other people to practice safe physical distancing. The program, "Social Distancing Trainer," was produced by Discovery Education and Afterschool Alliance. The app uses augmented reality to get the idea across.
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Education Week
If you welcomed a student-teacher into your classroom in January, you might now be questioning how to include her as you work to meet the basic instructional needs of your students. You're probably feeling overwhelmed by the rapidly changing school policies on distance learning while navigating mounting pressures to troubleshoot new technologies like videoconferencing software. If that wasn't enough, those pressures may be compounded for you as a parent or caregiver who is also tending to the learning needs of your own children.
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Fast Company
We are all aware of the need to socially distance and isolate ourselves during the COVID-19 crisis. For many, that means having to spend time with family and people we normally get time away from for extended periods. It's a situation that is taxing our already extended coping abilities. The uncertainty of how long this will last is not helping.
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Move This World
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The Lead Change Group (commentary)
Dan Lovaglia, a contributor for The Lead Change Group, writes: "All year long I hear leaders say, 'I could really use a break.' And now, with all the shelter in place and staying at home going on, you finally have one. I doubt it feels like a real break, though. Instead, you might find yourself suddenly trying to maintain your same pace of productivity remotely, even though the world around you can't possibly keep up. While there's nothing wrong with attempting to lead at the highest levels right now, maybe this unexpected 'break' is a blessing in disguise for you."
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Forbes
Leaders are being tested by COVID-19 and the rapidly evolving responses that are dramatically disrupting how we work in our organizations and with our teams. We have many leadership habits that help us deal with all that comes at us in normal times, but those habits are being disrupted by this global pandemic. As things get busier and more challenging, it is easy for leaders to get caught up in the energy.
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Education DIVE
The flexibility comes shortly after the passage of the CARES Act, which allowed for such flexibilities, and in response to what Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos says was a need expressed by education leaders for more resources. Initial findings from a survey released Monday by AASA, The School Superintendents Association, show over half of superintendents responding identified expanded online learning as a top cost their districts will incur in their response to COVID-19.
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Chalkbeat
When the last recession hit school budgets about a decade ago, it didn't hit them equally. Affluent school districts saw their state funding drop by more than $500 per student after the downturn. High-poverty districts in the same state lost much more: over $1,500 per student in state funds. Now, the coronavirus has brought much of the American economy to a halt. Another recession is possible, even likely. And the poorest school districts, which are particularly reliant on state funds, may once again bear the brunt of the budget crunch.
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Education Next (commentary)
Frederick Hess, a contributor for Education Next, writes: "The coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for America's schools and colleges. Washington has sought to respond with last week's CARES Act, including more than $2 trillion in new federal spending. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education has been making decisions about federally required testing, student loans, special education policy, and much else. I had the chance to talk with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about what she's doing at the department and the federal response to coronavirus. Here's what she had to say."
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EdTech Magazine
Cloud computing has become a popular tool for schools in the past several years. "Every industry is being transformed by the cloud, and education is no exception," Dan Ayoub, general manager of Microsoft Education, tells EdTech. In fact, 90% of K–12 school districts that responded to CoSN's 2018 Infrastructure Survey reported using the cloud for storage, while 88% said they used cloud-based software systems.
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EdSurge
A celebrity among education nonprofits, Sal Khan is used to hitting the fundraising trail. Throughout the years, the founder and CEO Of Khan Academy has secured tens of millions of dollars from individuals, wealthy philanthropists and corporate donors. But even a rainmaker of his reputation has cause for concern during the age of the coronavirus.
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EdTech Magazine
The country saw a massive shift to remote learning in the past month as school districts were confronted with mandatory closures due to COVID-19. Many are navigating uncharted waters, especially those pushed to quickly create and implement e-learning plans for the first time. They had numerous things to consider — What technology tools should we use for virtual learning and instruction? Would students and teachers have the ability to access those tools from home? If not, how would we address that?
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eSchool News
With many schools now practicing blended learning, it can be helpful for educators interested in blended-learning programs to know which ed tech tools are being used. For over five years, we at the Christensen Institute have been collecting data on blended-learning schools from around the world. In 2016, we launched our redesigned Blended Learning Universe — a hub for resources and research, including a directory of schools practicing blended learning.
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School shut down? Looking to expand your teachers' professional learning? IRIS can help. Supported by the U.S. Department of Education, we offer free online PD, covering behavior management, differentiated instruction, accommodations for students with disabilities and more, to increase your teachers' knowledge of evidence-based
practices:
https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/pd-hours/
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By: Bambi Majumdar (commentary)
 According to Education Week, the spread of the coronavirus has forced the closure of at least 124,000 K-12 schools across the country, and learning has gone virtual. While K-12 educators are trying to shift to e-Learning in record time and continue teaching, they, along with students, are receiving a lot of help from the K-12 tech industry. Major education technology companies are making their paid services free through the rest of the school year and are even adding premium features to those.
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NPR
School leaders in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas have announced they're discontinuing their use of the Zoom videoconferencing service for distance learning because of security, privacy, harassment and other concerns. And individual schools in Los Angeles and elsewhere are also switching to alternatives, like Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and WebEx.
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We Are Teachers
A teenager sits outside a Subway with a laptop. His dad's work is in danger of shutting down, so having Internet access at home isn't a priority right now. Now he sits on the sidewalk, trying to do his work and keep from getting behind. And all I can think is, "What are we having him do that’s so important that he's outside a fast-food restaurant to access Wi-Fi? Can't we just give him a break?"
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Teaching Channel
In the midst of the COVID-10 pandemic, 21st century skills are more important than ever. As we face an unknown future that is going to require problem-solving and innovative thinking, it is clear that skills such as collaboration and creativity are no longer simply "soft skills." They're now a necessity for our society to adapt to new challenges. But with our students at a distance, how do we continue to develop these important skills? Surprisingly it's not that different in a virtual space than in a "brick and mortar" classroom.
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We Are Teachers
Having a network of teacher friends is a great way to get new ideas, find comradeship, always have someone to lean on, collaborate with, and gain perspective. Especially during uncertain times like we're going through right now. While all teachers should have a way to prevent stress and burnout, special education teachers especially need support networks. Let's just say that a special education teacher's job is demanding, on an easy day. And who is having easy days at the moment?
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Edutopia
Whether we use synchronous or asynchronous online sessions, whether we call it distance or virtual learning, we're all challenged to provide meaningful education experiences at a distance as the education world grapples with the impact of Covid-19. This type of learning is nothing new, but it is new to many of us and has caused us to quickly shift our practices.
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Tech & Learning
Schools across the nation continue to stay closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Every day, districts are updating plans for teachers and students to continue to work remotely, educators are finding resources to support remote learning, and state and federal officials are providing guidelines on how to best handle student needs. However, in the rush to adopt remote learning and maintain connections academically and emotionally, are we ensuring all students are supported while away from school?
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Edutopia
With the announcement of school districts closing across America, most teachers have pivoted to respond to a new reality — face-to-face learning is not currently an option. In the shuffle from traditional schooling to remote learning, many teachers and parents are relying on grade-level or subject-specific packets and online learning. But there are other options.
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MiddleWeb (commentary)
Sarah Cooper, a contributor for MiddleWeb, writes: "Teaching via Zoom at my kitchen counter, laptop perched on coffee table books, is not the top way I would choose to interact with my eighth-grade U.S. history students. However, by the time we reach the end of each period — usually a combination of full-class current events discussion and group or individual project work — I find myself reluctant to say goodbye."
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Edutopia
An elementary teacher who has worked for an ed tech startup argues that it's important now — with teachers and students working separately — to promote reflection and social connection as tools for learning.
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The Atlantic
We are in the midst of the most sweeping education experiment in history. The coronavirus pandemic has forced the majority of the U.S.'s 3.6 million educators to find ways to teach without what most of them consider the core part of their craft — the daily face-to-face interactions that help them elicit a child's burning desire to investigate something; detect confusion or a lack of engagement; and find the right approach, based on a student's body language and participation in the classroom, to help students work through their challenges.
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Gallup
As the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to upend life in the U.S. and growing numbers of schools have announced closures through the end of the 2019-2020 school year, formal, school-sponsored distance learning programs for K-12 children are ramping up. In the two weeks that Gallup has been tracking the ways in which U.S. schoolchildren are being educated during the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of parents who say their child is learning remotely through a school-sponsored online distance learning program has grown from 65% to 83%.
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The New York Times
Children make up a very small proportion of American coronavirus cases so far and are significantly less likely to become seriously ill than American adults, according to a preliminary report on the first wave of coronavirus cases in the United States. But some have become very sick, and at least three have died. The study, published Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also reported that children appear less likely than adults to develop any of the major known coronavirus symptoms: fever, cough or shortness of breath.
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University at Buffalo via Science Daily
Personal growth and job skills have taken a backseat to an increased focus on standardized test scores in schools across the nation, according to new University at Buffalo-led research. The study, which analyzed the educational goals of principals at thousands of public, private and charter schools over two decades, found the shift in priorities is most pronounced in public schools.
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The Hechinger Report
In Mississippi and across the nation, schools closed because of coronavirus are struggling to find ways to educate children remotely. But even as Mississippi's education leaders adapt to new platforms, experts say, they must begin to plan ahead. Once campuses fully reopen, schools will need clear strategies to catch up students who have been unable to keep up their studies at home, the experts advise.
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Education Week
The world is bracing for an economic recession if not worse, due to the coronavirus pandemic. But to what extent would a financial nosedive take school spending with it? We have some estimates from Michael Griffith, a veteran school finance analyst. Relying on data from the Congressional Research Service and other sources, Griffith created an analysis that we put into chart form. See the interactive graphic below to find out — once you factor in $13.5 billion of emergency aid from the CARES Act — how much state spending cuts could impact per-pupil spending, depending on how deep those cuts are.
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NAESP
Are you overwhelmed, stressed and struggling to navigate all of the Zoom meetings, emails, planning and connecting on the job with the demands at home as well? Join principals Jessica Cabeen, Rachael George, and Andy Jacks every Thursday, as they address topics relevant to leading schools during COVID-19.
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NAESP
Principals, have you ever wondered how teachers view you? The Education Week Research Center's "Inside the Principal-Teacher Relationship" report reveals striking gaps between how principals rate the effects of their leadership and how teachers do.
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