The Progressive Policy Institute hosted a conversation on how members of the Democratic Party can better protect recent gains made by Black and Brown students while advancing these gains after the 2020 Presidential Election. The conversation surrounded gains made by Black and Brown students, how these gains were made, and more importantly how Democrats can…
Publications
The coronavirus pandemic is an historic test of the resilience of one of America’s most precious public assets: our public schools. So far, it’s a test we are failing. Tens of millions of children have fallen far behind in their studies. These learning losses will cascade as health fears keep most schools closed this fall…
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…
Press
After welcoming undergraduates back to campus, Notre Dame, Michigan State, and the University of North Carolina (among others), experienced outbreaks of COVID-19. The result—they switched back to remote learning. With 26,000 cases of coronavirus linked to college campuses, more will soon follow. While some of those schools will offer discounts for online courses, many others won’t. Is…
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…
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…
