The Education Policy Hotlist

Top News in U.S. Education Policy for the Week of September 14

My three school-aged kids started distance learning this month and it has gone much better than I expected because of the enormous love and care our teachers send us each day. While I am still uncertain about how to manage the schedules of my kindergartener, 3rd, and 4th grader, along with my own work schedule, these unknowns pale in comparison to the more concerning crisis of our region: Oregon’s wildfires.

Nearly 10% of Oregonians have evacuated their homes due to the wildfires and they are in need of resources to survive and recover from this devastation. All weekend I was watching the evacuation notices to determine if we’d have to pack-up because we are not far from the evacuation zones. My 9-year old daughter started asking me questions about the fires. We discussed how the families evacuated probably wished they could focus on school this week and we decided to explore ways to support our neighbors.

The wildfires are impacting Oregon communities who were already facing barriers to economic stability and opportunity, like our state’s farmworkers and those priced out of their urban neighborhoods. For a variety of reasons, the traditional relief services, like the Red Cross, may not be appropriate supports. My daughter and I found a group of Portland advocates to whom we could donate. These Portland groups made a swift pivot this week to address the enormous need caused by the fires. These groups were previously organizing to advocate for racial justice and shifted their services to oversee the collection and distribution of food, clothing, and housing for wildfire victims. Witnessing this evolving grassroots movement is humbling and exemplifies the exact type of justice we’ve been fighting for over the past few months – a justice in service of peace and unity.

If you are interested in supporting those impacted by Oregon wildfires please go to one of the following sites: PCUN, Feed the Mass, Don’t Shoot PDX, Southern Oregon Fire Relief, United Way Lane County Wildfire Response Fund, Access Virtual Food Drive for Southern Oregon.

FEDERAL EDUCATION POLICY

Since the 1980’s the federal government has relinquished more and more of its responsibility in providing equitable and high-quality education for all US students. In this time of crisis, in which our Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, economic downturn, and raging wildfires, we need more centralized supports for our communities of which we’ve historically disinvested. Research advocates are drawing the line and setting expectations for our federal leaders regarding our investments, policies, and social services that keep teachers and students healthy and safe. Meanwhile, Congress is unlikely to get relief to local communities until after the Presidential election. Politics have taken center stage in how we are catalyzing through this crisis and the impact will take the biggest toll on our future generations, my own children. We must pivot towards a more pragmatic form of policymaking in short order if we are going to truly address the harms of the global health crisis and racial injustice across America.

• McConnell: Chance for coronavirus deal 'doesn't look that good right now'
• The Federal Role in Advancing Education Equity and Excellence
• DeVos drops controversial rule on coronavirus aid
• Senate GOP COVID-19 Relief Bill Fails; Chances Of Bipartisan Deal Before Election Dim
• Urgent action by states, fed needed to clarify school reopening decisions
• USDA makes right move to mitigate food insecurity with lunch program extension
• The Education Department's crackdown comes as it implements a government-wide directive the White House issued Friday to stop what it called “un-American propaganda training sessions" about race

DIGITAL DIVIDE

Most students and families are facing COVID impacted learning squarely in the face this month and the digital divide is outlining a long-overlooked resource disparity in technology and broadband access. In reality, providing these tools and services will do more than support distance learning because these functionalities are at the center of backbone systems included in integrated social services like telehealth and workforce success. We are seeing governors investing in families and workforce by expanding internet access, but centralizing this service requires a lot more work, like disentangling the nuances between availability, adoption, and affordability for our local communities.

• Governor Cooper Announces More Than $12 million to Expand Internet Access
• Governor Little: Financial support for K-12 education grows 10.5-percent during pandemic
• Broadband in Red and Blue States: Three Solutions to Low-Income Internet Access
• U.S. Chamber Letter on Broadband Connectivity and the Homework Gap

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Global research is surfacing this fall about the projected long-term impact of the variability in COVID-19 learning opportunities on student’s lifelong success. The big takeaway is that students today cannot return to business as usual and education leaders need to be provided more time and capacity to plan for the long-term instead of functioning in emergency-mode. A few themes emerged this week, (a) we must prioritize our educators with transparent communication and narrow, (b) we must narrow in on strengthening relationships and building trust across parents and communities, and (c) we must maintain integrity to our pre-pandemic strategies in ways that will strengthen any pivots we have to make along the way.

• The Economic Impacts of Learning Losses
• Sustaining a Sense of Success: The Importance of Teacher Working Conditions During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Ayer Elementary School’s Resilient Conditions for Improvement
• Can Background Knowledge Solve America’s Reading Crisis?
• Beyond Reopening Schools: How Education Can Emerge Stronger Than Before COVID-19
• Analysis: As Many School Districts Reopen Virtually, the Opportunity Gap Widens for Students Living in Poverty

ASSESSMENT

The discussion about testing in 2020-21 has grown exponentially in the past few weeks. Students are now in schools, teachers are transitioning out of introductory meetings to evaluate the social, emotional, and mental well-being of families, and parents are left wondering how they can work with teachers and schools to support their children this year. While some schools are starting to measure students baseline scores for this academic year through formative or interim measures, we’ve yet to hear about the nuts and bolts of testing students in distance learning. Moreover, the US Department of Education has started communicating boldly with chiefs about their expectations for summative tests administered in the spring. Just like the discussion about instruction and learning loss, we must think strategically about the nuances of standardized testing this year (including the challenges and opportunities in validity, use-cases, and innovation) – this is because the data we collect this year will be our flashlight, our safety net, and how we tell the story of this generation for decades to come.

• Student Assessment During COVID-19
• How To Center Equity in Advanced Coursework Testing During COVID-19
• DeVos: States should 'rethink' assessment, consider competency, mastery-based assessments
• What Grading and Assessment Practices Could Schools Use in the Year Ahead?

LIABILITY

Schools are facing a litany of challenges and uncertainties and, with the typical local control model for schooling, many states struggle to share centralized guidance and supports. One of the persisting concerns is how schools will address the risk of employees and/or students contracting the coronavirus. States are starting to setup systems for reporting cases of COVID-19 and other local leaders are having parent sign waivers, similar to a field trip waiver form. Overall, there are no clear answers or solutions, but growing concern about the open-ended discussion.

• Schools May Get Sued Over COVID-19.7 Things to Know About Managing That Risk
• Texas Schools Must Send Weekly Coronavirus Case Reports to State Starting Tuesday
• Liability or Not? Schools Reopen With Questions on the Table

EDUCATION FINANCE

Politics drive how we make investments across our social systems. This function of government is highlighted today with the state of Congress and our waning state budgets. For governors, education chiefs, and superintendents this is a time to unify around what our communities are asking for because this is a long game. Analysts have shared that we state policymakers typically make tradeoffs between health, welfare, and education and moving into a long-term economic crisis we need these systems to be working in coordination not disjointed. This type of co-constructed policy can result in stronger advocacy at the national level and stronger supports for families and communities.

• The Impact of Political Party Control on Education Finance and Outcomes: Evidence from U.S. States
• State Revenues Decline for First Time Since the Great Recession, With the Worst Still to Come
• How Governors Are Using Their CARES Act Education Dollars

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Tuesday, September 15 (11 AM PST) WestEd webinar on Culturally Responsive Data Literacy. Register here.
• Tuesday, September 22 (10 AM PST) NWEA on Assessing student learning in the "new normal": Considerations for policy and practice. Register here.  
• Wednesday, September 23 (10 AM EST) Senate HELP Committee is holding a hearing on COVID-19: An Update on the Federal Response. View here.
• Monday, October 5 (2:00 EST) Bellwether webinar on A Lost Year of Data? What Disruptions From COVID-19 Mean for Education Research. Register here.

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Dr. Christine M. T. Pitts is a Policy Advisor at NWEA. As an Oregonian, raised by a multicultural family of educators, she brings a decade of progressive strategic leadership experience, a transformational vision, and analytic skill to crafting state education policy. An educator, leader, and researcher by training, she has conducted legislation, governance, and policy analyses on a wide array of education issues using social network analysis and mixed methods research. In addition, Dr. Pitts is a facilitative leader who deeply understands and executes transformative partnerships and convening across stakeholder groups. Dr. Pitts currently coordinates across policymakers and state leaders to investigate and advocate for policies that prioritize equity in education. Follow her on Twitter @cmtpitts.