4 steps to support student mental health as schools reopen

Most schools across the country sent students home last spring at the onset of the pandemic. More than a year later, many are just now reopening—unaware of the true impact the stresses brought on by COVID-19 have had on children.

One of the biggest challenges ahead for education professionals is knowing how to support students sufficiently, particularly from a student mental health standpoint, as they return to classrooms. Many learners have fallen behind and are now generally disengaged. In addition, social isolation and other issues at home, including the recent rise in domestic violence and unemployment, have taken a major toll on youth and student mental health.

Concerns around the mental health of students are also rising. A recent Reuters report found that more than 70 percent of districts polled have seen increased mental health stress amongst students. A recent survey of K-12 and higher education professionals found that respondents ranked student mental health as their second-highest safety concern.…Read More

11 facts about today’s K-12 IT leadership

Broadband access and the ever-growing equity gap are among K-12 IT leaders’ top concerns, according to CoSN’s annual IT Leadership Survey.

The survey, released in collaboration with the Ed-Fi Alliance and other partners, is based on a national survey of nearly 400 school systems and provides a nuanced look at the challenges K-12 IT leadership has faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were proud to once again work alongside the CoSN team in developing this report,” said Sean Casey, manager of strategic partnerships at the Ed-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit devoted to helping school districts and states achieve data interoperability. “At Ed-Fi, our goal is to define data standards to solve problems shared by all educators and to arm the learning community with useful information, as found in this report, for conscientious decision-making that leads to better outcomes for learners everywhere.”…Read More

CAE Presents Case For Authentic Assessment To Improve Student Outcomes At Beyond Multiple Choice Seminar

Experts in performance-based assessment share research on student engagement and effort

June 3, 2021, NEW YORK – The Council for Aid to Education, Inc. (CAE), a nonprofit developer of performance-based and custom assessments that authentically measure students’ essential college and career readiness skills, recently presented “Leveraging Performance Tasks to Assess College Readiness”, at “Assessment Challenges of Our New Decade” hosted by Beyond Multiple Choice. An international community of education and training-industry stakeholders committed to exploring, innovating, and implementing the future of assessment, Beyond Multiple Choice drew hundreds of attendees from around the world, explored urgent challenges confronting the future of assessment, and shared expert visions, plans, and tools to address them.

According to Beyond Multiple Choice, assessments have come increasingly under fire over the past decade, with critics claiming they are overused, inequitably applied, and not aligned with optimal outcomes for training and education. The challenges of COVID-19 highlighted already existing perceptions of assessment deficiencies.…Read More

8 awesome podcasts for kids, families, and teachers

As podcasts skyrocket in popularity, news buffs and true crime addicts shouldn’t have all the fun. There are a growing number of podcasts for kids, covering topics from SEL and history to book clubs and brain challenges.

Below, we’ve collected a handful of fun and engaging podcasts for kids. You might be inspired to incorporate them into your virtual, hybrid, or in-person classroom when appropriate.

1. Ooh! You’re in Trouble: Ooh! You’re in Trouble is a podcast for tweens, parents, and teachers about the rules we broke growing up…and what those moments teach kids about making smart decisions when grownups aren’t around. Each episode features young people sharing stories of a moment they broke the rules growing up. The series explores why kids defy rules and what we can learn from it. …Read More

Creating educational opportunity with equity and fairness

We open this story of opportunity in America where many would begin — with our children, and what opportunity looks like for them today.

Some are born to privilege, with parents who have both the time and resources to invest in their development, living in neighborhoods with strong and cohesive social networks, attending good schools, and benefiting from substantial public investments that support them as they grow. Others are born to struggling families that face daily challenges to provide for them, living in communities with a lack of safe housing options and few job prospects for residents — communities with inadequate schools, many shattered by poverty and violence.

These different starting points place children on distinctly different trajectories of growth, leading to an accelerated accumulation of advantage or disadvantage and, ultimately, to vastly different adult outcomes.…Read More

3 reasons we’re still using outdated assessments

For many years, educators have strived to balance the grip of testing for accountability with the need for actionable data. Though the sustained school closures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have undoubtedly presented new challenges to the assessment landscape, these changes also amplified pre-existing concerns within the traditional, summative assessment approach.

For too long, educators have had to rely on end-of-year testing data to gauge their students’ knowledge. The problem? Summative assessment data is only available to teachers when it’s too late to use that data to inform instruction and improve student outcomes.

When state assessments were canceled in 2020 and districts were left to their own devices to measure and address learning needs, teachers, district administrators, and state leaders alike were forced to ask the question: Is there a better way to gauge what students know throughout the year?…Read More

4 challenges–and solutions–around assessments and accountability

A new report examines some of the biggest challenges related to assessments and accountability, and offers recommendations for educators and policymakers as they move past spring 2021 and aim to improve student success rates.

The report comes from NWEA and Education Reform Now (ERN), which worked together with organizations representing state departments of education, school districts, policy and advocacy groups, and universities, to identify recommendations and potential policy options that re-envision assessments and accountability measures this spring—and–beyond to better advance student success.

The overall goal? Through productive meetings and discussions, identify ways to ensure systems support deeper learning and give educators and policymakers the critical data they need to support students, improve achievement and outcomes, target resources, and develop new instructional policies and practices.…Read More

5 great things the pandemic revealed about schools

The light at the end of the tunnel shines a little brighter every day, and it makes it easier to reflect on a handful of hard-won positives to emerge from the pandemic. These may not be universal truths, but some schools have unearthed opportunities from the past year’s challenges.

Increased engagement

When given the opportunity to connect through teacher conferences, traditionally, parents could take it or leave it. After all, barriers to creating connections loomed large. Virtual school led naturally to virtual conferences, and the rest is history. One district even saw 100 percent attendance at one elementary school’s conferences!…Read More