The Covid-19 pandemic and recession will leave lasting marks on many major U.S. institutions, and higher education is no exception. Last spring, as most of the economy shut down, America’s colleges and universities also closed their campuses and shifted to online, video-teaching, or some combination of the two. The experience likely will trigger a searching…
Publications
The nation is embroiled in a fierce debate over whether or not to reopen public schools this fall. Governors facing fresh outbreaks are rightly reluctant to act in haste, while President Trump has threatened to withhold federal aid to districts that don't open on schedule. Everyone wants to see their kids get back to school…
“Providing a World-Class Education in Every ZIP Code” is the title of Joe Biden’s education task force policy recommendations, released last week. Given his long record of support for high-quality public schools, there’s no reason to doubt the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee’s sincerity. As president, surely, he’d wave a magic wand and instantly make every American child’s school…
Press
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown people some real flaws in our public education systems. If Joe Biden is elected, will he fix them? Many school districts had trouble adapting to the sudden closure and were never able to deliver effective distance learning. Many parents were surprised how low schools’ expectations were and disappointed by the quality of education their children…
Bridgeport Public School students were in trouble before the pandemic shuttered schools in March. Each year, BPS students take the “Smarter Balance” state tests. On the 2019 test, not a single BPS school recorded 50 percent of its students meeting or exceeding expectations for their grade level in reading, with the exception of two select…
It is time for Latinx communities to build the political power necessary to demand education reforms that benefit their children, several Latinx leaders argue. Within 16 months, 30 percent of all public school students will be Latinx, they pointed out during a recent Progressive Policy Institute webinar. But school boards often have no idea what these…
Blog
The Reinventing America's Schools Project sponsored an engaging discussion entitled "To Open or Not To Open: Educational Equity Under COVID." Over 4,000 parents, educators, advocates, funders, journalists, and policy makers registered to hear from experts in teaching, parental engagement, system leadership and health on how to equitably reopen schools in the fall. Our moderator and…
As schools wind down from a, hopefully, once-in-a-lifetime shutdown, many students and teachers find their motivation also winding down. Educators are calling this “zoom fatigue,” referring to the commonly used teleconference platform. To end the year on a high note, teachers could turn to project-based learning (PBL), by asking students to complete a project they…
My 10-year-old nephew, like most American kids, is “doing school” at home. An only child, he misses his friends, is not learning as much as he would in the classroom (by his own and his parents’ admission), and is often-times bored. I ordered him a Lego Star Wars space fighter with a gazillion pieces to…
