ABCFT - YOUnionews - October 16, 2020
MEMBER VOICES - Instructional Delivery Survey
Final day to respond is Monday, October 12th 19th
YOU are a vital part and voice of the YOUnion. Thank you to the nearly 700 members for taking the Instructional Delivery Survey. If you haven’t already, please take the time to provide ABCFT leaders with your informed opinion about your experiences during remote learning and preferences for reopening schools. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. We know ABCFT members have endured much upheaval and have adapted with professionalism and concern to our evolving situation. Your answers are anonymous.
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - ELECTION 2020
18 Days Until the Election - What’s Your Plan to Vote?
Now that registered voters have received their ballots be sure to make your plan to vote. Seal, sign, and date your ballot. Secure your ballot inside the official return envelope provided by your county elections office. Make sure the signature on the return envelope matches the one you provided when registering.
You have multiple safe, secure, and reliable options for returning your ballot:
Mail – No stamp is required to return your ballot through the US Postal Service. Make sure your ballot is postmarked by November 3, 2020.
Dropbox – Many counties will offer secure drop boxes to return your ballot. Make sure your ballot is deposited by 8:00 p.m. on November 3, 2020
In-person – You can return your ballot to a polling place, vote center, or your county elections office by 8:00 p.m. on November 3, 2020. Many counties will have early voting locations available before Election Day. Voting locations will offer voter registration, replacement ballots, accessible voting machines, and language assistance.
You can also take action to ensure a smooth voting experience
Double-check the address on your registration. To make sure you get your ballot, you can confirm your address at VoterStatus.sos.ca.gov
Sign up for ballot tracking alerts. You can sign up to receive updates on your vote-by-mail ballot via text (SMS), email, or voice call through the state’s official “Where’s My Ballot?” tracking tool at WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov
Encourage all of your friends and family members age 18 and over to use their voice to vote this November. To participate in this election, you must be registered by October 19th.
One or more early voting locations will be available in all counties for at least four days beginning the Saturday before the November 3rd election. In-person voting locations will be offer voter registration, replacement ballots, accessible coting machines, and language assistance for those in need.
Click below to learn more about
California’s Election and Voters Guide
Register to vote
Learn how to vote
Check your voter status
Official Voter Information Guide
The CFT Educators Choice Voters Guide
The ABCFT YOUnion Needs Your Support For School Board Elections - Sign up for COPE
Committee On Political Education (COPE):
Did you know that there are some school districts that have their online school from 9:00 to 3:30? Is it important to you that our union works to always fight for fair working conditions? Then, please support COPE, where your investment goes towards a school board that supports fair working conditions, higher wages, and excellent medical benefits. Collected COPE funds exclusively support ABC School Board elections. To become a COPE member today, click on this link → ABCFT COPE Membership
In this year’s election cycle there are four ABC School Board Trustees seats that are up for election. Thanks to the generous support of ABCFT members we are able to spend $50,000 on this election to support candidates who support teachers and students. This money does not come from your union dues because it is for political actions. ABCFT works hard each election cycle to make sure that we have school board trustees that support good wages, good health plans, and good working conditions for their employees. If teachers are supported then their students are supported by the learning environment they deserve. Elections campaigns are expensive but the cost of losing an election is far greater. Sign up and become a proud ABCFT COPE Contributor and ensure that we have a school board that listens to their teachers and nurses.
MEMBER BENEFITS - WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS
Maintaining our mental health and well-being is important for all of us. ABCFT will be offering Wellness Wednesdays. Wednesdays from 3:00 to 3:30 pm members will have an opportunity to virtually participate in Guided Meditation and Chair Yoga. These weekly sessions will give members a chance to practice self-care.
In partnership with Kaiser Permanente, you can also access mindfulness resources for all ABCFT members. For Kaiser members, you have free access to the app Calm and myStrength which offers personalized self-care programs based on the cognitive behavioral therapy model.
Please be kind to yourself and find time in your busy schedule to take care of yourself.
This week, Donna focuses the benefits of sleep. Using the 4-square meditation can help you slow down and prepare for sleep. She also led participants with four yoga poses; bridge, suspended fish, spinal twist and legs up wall to practice before bed.
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - ABCFT ACTIVISTS AT WORK
Fifteen ABCFT members serve on CFT state-level standing committees to work on their areas of expertise to advocate and help shape the direction of CFT policies and procedures manual and create resolutions that are debated at the CFT convention and if approved will move their work forward by CFT. These committees also support the CFT legislative team by providing guidance and feedback in their specific knowledge areas. Thank you to these ABCFT activists for using their collective voices at the state level to support the needs of our local members and shaping education policy. Below are a few reports from the committee members.
English Language Learners by Susie Gomez
I along with Gaby Ibarra attended the meeting for the EL Committee. Our biggest area of concern was student access to reliable technology (devices and wifi access). We discussed the need for a standard minimum requirement for all students across the state and the inconsistencies we’re seeing for both students and teachers by the district. We also shared common concerns for our EL learners with a focus on a lack of appropriate curriculum for newcomers. We will continue to look for grants that may help with these issues and collect information on what is available to students in our local districts to see if we can make recommendations to better support EL learners during this time.
English Language Learners by Gaby Ibarra
We discussed the general concerns we are all facing in our classrooms. In regards to our EL students, we think that they are more affected by the current situation since lack of proper internet or ability to pay for it, prevents them from being present 100% where getting logged off or connection working at slower than normal speed is common. Our EL students are often the students struggling the most academically and with unreliable technological resources, they may fall behind even further. So how can we best support them? We need to continue to push the availability for efficient internet access to all students, working closely with our districts to ensure it is happening. If our students can be present 100% of the time, we can better support their academic needs.
MEMBER ONLY RESOURCES
OCTOBER ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
This month’s academic service update is vital for all teachers. We hope that you will take a moment to look at this monthly report which discusses changes in academic services. This document provides the union with a means of giving the District feedback on the many programs or changes they are proposing at any one time. Without your feedback or questions on these changes, it is harder for ABCFT to slow down and modify the district’s neverending roll out of new projects. Please submit your comments and questions to the appropriate ABCFT liaison.
Resources on ShareMyLesson.com for Special Education:
https://sharemylesson.com/
https://sharemylesson.com/
For Elementary curricular issues please email Kelley at Kelley.Forsythe@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
For Secondary curricular issues please email Rich at Richard.Saldana@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
For Special Education issues please email Stefani at Stefani.Palutzke@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
Click Here For This Month’s Full Report
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with the membership is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and wellbeing of ABCFT members. This weekly report aims to keep the membership informed about issues that impact their working/learning conditions and their mental well-being. Together we make the YOUnion.
As of today, we have 659 survey responses to the latest ABCFT Instructional survey. That is an amazing response and let me be the first to say thank you for all your time and effort to provide ABCFT with hard data and thoughtful feedback on the state of education in ABC. Those who work closely with me hear me say time and time again that controlling the narrative is what gives you leverage and respect at the negotiations table. Without your survey answers, the ABCFT negotiations team would be flying blind as they negotiate some of the most critical contract language we will see in our lifetime (no pressure right).
What do you mean by controlling the narrative Ray? As teachers, we know that it is one of the most powerful levers of power that we have on our students in the classroom. When something happens in your classroom that warrants an email or calls to the parent/guardian teacher know that they need to make sure that parents hear the truth from the teacher first. How many times have we all had students twist what happens in the classroom to favor themselves so that the student doesn’t have to take responsibility for their actions. After being burned a number of times by students I know I learned the importance of the saying “the first story wins.” Getting to those parents first always saves you time and frustration. That’s called driving the narrative.
How does the ABCFT drive the narrative with a survey you ask? Obviously, the survey is informative for the negotiation team and the leadership team and this is a perfectly sound way to use this data. However, there’s more you can do with a survey so it can be so much more impactful. ABCFT is fully aware that the District has not done a comprehensive survey of employees recently and as an organization, they need teacher feedback so that they know what is happening in classrooms. Without teachers and students being in the classrooms, it is much harder to gain that information anecdotally so the need for feedback is at a critical level.
This week when the PAL Council convened, Superintendent Dr. Mary Sieu was able to read a good portion of your preliminary comments and answers to the ABCFT survey. The PAL Council is a committee that consists of four ABCFT representatives (Ray Gaer, Tanya Golden, Jill Yasutake, and Kelley Forsythe) and four ABCUSD administrators (Dr. Mary Sieu, Dr. Valencia Mayfield, Melinda Ortiz, Dr. Crechena Wise). This committee discusses the state of communication and joint activities of the administration and the union such as planning the annual PAL Retreat or other joint learning activities. The PAL Committee provides ABCFT the chance to have direct contact with Dr. Sieu. She usually is able to visit schools each day to learn about what is happening in your classrooms and she takes great pride in staying in direct contact with as many teachers and principals as she can to help provide feedback for decisions. Your survey answers are a lifeline of information for Dr. Sieu and ABCFT is happy to provide her with the opportunity to gain this information. This is controlling the narrative so that teachers have a seat at the table where decisions are made. Having influence on decision-makers is key and those of you who talk with your principals or supervisors do this naturally.
ABCFT will share the results of this survey with everyone when it closes on the 19th. However, what I’ve learned from reading the preliminary results is that teachers are spending endless hours making the virtual learning experience work for their students. A majority of you are using dual monitors or computers and you need less paperwork, stronger hotspots, and headphones for your students to cut down on distractions. Most of you are not ready to go back because you understand that transitioning to a hybrid in its current form would be detrimental to your pacing and the success of your students. That is such a powerful student-centered statement and a testament to why teachers and nurses go into the education profession in the first place. I know you all have dozens of questions about the future and so do I. Just know that as soon as we have some of those answers we will let you know but for now, I hope you all have a good weekend.
In Unity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Hello all,
I hope by now we’ve all met — I’m the new CFT field rep working with your local. On behalf of CFT and our amazing SoCal organizers listed above, I’m writing to ask you once again to join us in getting out the vote over the next three weeks. I’m asking each leader on this email to sign up for at least one shift each to help us bring the reality of real change in California and the nation into being. Join us by signing up below.
We are less than a month away from the election, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. This poll, as covered in the LA Times in late September, shows prop 15 on top, although there were 17% of respondents undecided. While prop 15 has seen some good fundraising, the No on 15 people are nipping at our heels (see Edsource). And, as I’m sure you’ve seen, polls place Biden on top in many swing states (538), and some senate seats such as Graham's in South Carolina and McSally in Arizona are now considered toss-ups or leaning democrat (Cook Political Report).
BUT: none of this matters if we don’t do our work to turn out our supporters. AFT and CFT are working at full-speed in the next 21 days — 3 weeks! Come join us at the opportunities below. Sign up at the links below, and let me know that you’ll be joining us.
First, CFT is running our own Prop 15 phonebanks! These online phonebanks are fun — we meet on zoom, do a quick training and then phonebank together Click on the following to register! And Glendale College Guild — thanks for adopting October 15! Everyone else can join us too, of course.
CFT Prop 15 Phonebanks with Jason and Erin:
Oct. 15, 5:30 to 7:30
https://cft.zoom.us/meeting/
Oct. 20, 5:30 to 7:30
https://cft.zoom.us/meeting/
Oct. 22, 5:30 to 7:30
https://cft.zoom.us/meeting/
I look forward to seeing you all live very soon at one of these phone banks! Let’s do this!
In solidarity,
Jason
The latest CFT articles and news stories can be found here on the PreK12 news feed on the CFT.org website.
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
SPECIAL EDUCATION
Distance learning challenges impacting special education programs
When schools closed to in-person learning in the spring, some individualized supports for students with disabilities were easily transitioned to remote or virtual learning. However, other services were harder to adapt to new learning formats, due to specific interventions requiring physical or behavioral supports. As a consequence, special education teachers have had to revise their students’ individualized education programs (IEP), to reflect pandemic realities of how best to replicate in-person services to full or hybrid virtual learning approaches. While many view such amendments as an effective and legally compliant way of adapting to the current situation, some parents and disability rights advocates have raised concerns that pandemic-related amendments could be viewed as an attempt to reduce services or circumvent the IEP team decision-making process. The new language districts are adding to I EP documents “could be fine or could lead to big problems,” said Courtney Pugh, a consultant with 4 PEAKS Educational Consulting, adding: “I want a child to get what they need in whatever format they can get it.” She recommends parents add a note at the end of the document stating the parent doesn’t agree to waive any rights under IDEA or Section 504, including their rights to a “free appropriate public education” for their children.
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
SCOTUS nominee: Brown v. Board of Education is 'superprecedent' beyond overruling
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has described the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation decision as one of a handful of “superprecedents” that it would be “unthinkable” to be overruled. The comments came during a marathon day of questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee in which Barrett got a handful of education-related questions. Barrett agreed with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the committee chairman, that it would quite unlikely a genuine case would arise that would give the Supreme Court an opportunity to reconsider Brown. "For Brown to be overruled, you would have to have Congress or some state or local government impose segregation again," she said. " I do not see that happening anytime soon." Barrett also discussed how she, her husband, and their seven children have coped with remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic, describing it as “a challenging time, as it was for every American.”
CDC publishes COVID-19 testing guidance for schools
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidance on COVID-19 testing in school settings, for K-12 school administrators working in collaboration with their state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) public health officials. It identifies the different types of test currently available to diagnose infections, advises how to prioritize which individuals should be tested, and sets out questions to consider for implementing mitigation strategies to reduce the transmission of the virus. Separately, the CDC has also said that coronavirus vaccines may not be recommended for children if and when they are first available. In a statement, it said most of the drugmakers working on a potential coronavirus vaccine have tested only nonpregnant, healthy adults. While these trials will eventually be extended to children and pregnant women, it is unclear when researchers will have enough data to make a recommendation for those groups. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine says that vaccines will be distributed in four phases, with health-care workers, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions getting vaccinated first, according to the group. Essential workers, teachers and people in homeless shelters as well as people in prisons would be next on the list, followed by children and young adults.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CNBC
School meals to be free throughout the year
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced that schools can continue offering free meals to students for the duration of the 2020-2021 academic year, whether they are learning at home or still in the classroom. By extending the Summer Food Service Program and the Seamless Summer Option waivers, as they are officially called, schools can also serve those free meals outside of typical meal hours, and allow parents and guardians to pick up them up. Before the pandemic, children had to pay for school meals unless their family’s household income was at or below 130% of the poverty level. But when outbreaks forced classes online, and as unemployment surged, USDA empowered schools to become de facto community feeding centers, allowing grab-and-go distribution and for parents to pick up free food for their children. “We want to ensure that children continue to receive the nutriti ous breakfasts and lunches they count on during the school year wherever they are,” said USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue.
----- STATE NEWS -----
California districts struggled to prepare teachers for distance learning
Many California school districts offered a wide variety of training over the summer to prepare teachers for distance learning in the fall, but some struggled to offer enough to meet the needs of all teachers, leaving many to find training on their own. While some offered in-house trainers, or hired teaching consultants, in other districts teachers were largely left on their own to convert lessons from in-person to virtual, according to an EdSource survey. Eighty-five per cent of the 67 California school superintendents who answered a survey question on the topic said their districts were offering distance learning instruction. About 40% of the districts offered nine to 16 hours of training, roughly a third offered five to eight hours of training and 16% offered one to four hours. Less than 10% of the school districts offered more than 16 hours of training for teachers.
Up to 1m California students may lack connectivity for distance learning
A state Education Committee hearing on Wednesday heard that, nearly two months into the school year, hundreds of thousands of California students are still without internet access at home needed to connect to teachers and peers during distance learning. “Remote learning continues to be out of reach for kids nationwide who lack a reliable internet connection,” Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell (D-Long Beach) said. It’s unclear exactly how many students are going without the tools they need to connect with their teachers every day during distance learning, but California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said up to 1m students could be lacking either computers or internet access needed to participate in distance learning. The California Department of Education is planning to ask companies and other organizations for their input through competition for innovative id eas on how to close the digital divide in California beyond hotspots. “We want to ask California companies and other innovators to think through solutions to a problem that has perplexed us for far too long,” Thurmond said. “We need these tools to make sure our teachers are connected to our kids.”
Sharp increase in K-12 assault reports
The Education Department has found that reports of sexual assaults at elementary, middle and high schools increased sharply between 2015 and 2018, a finding advocates say underscores the need for more schools to be prepared to handle reports of sexual violence. Using data drawn from the Civil Rights Data Collection, the department found that reports of sexual violence at schools rose from about 9,600 in the 2015-2016 school year to nearly 15,000 in the 2017-2018 school year, an increase of more than 50%. Shiwali Patel, director of justice for student survivors and senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, said the data probably represents an undercount of the sexual violence students have experienced. She added that the uptick in reports could be due to better awareness around sexual assault and a movement that emboldened survivors of sexual assault to speak up.
----- DISTRICTS -----
LAUSD students to get in-person tutoring, assessments
Students who have been struggling with distance learning may soon be able to receive in-person tutoring or assessments, now that Los Angeles USD has reached agreements with the teachers union to provide the services. United Teachers Los Angeles reported Friday that it reached a deal with LAUSD under which teachers can offer paid in-person tutoring, student assessments and “targeted adult education classes,” according to a letter it sent out to its members. Teacher participation in such programs will be voluntary, and instructors will be permitted to refuse to take part or withdraw from participation “without reprisal.” The agreement will require those involved to follow coronavirus health protocols. All students and teachers involved will have to undergo COVID-19 testing prior to beginning instruction. “Let’s be crystal clear,” said UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz. “This does not mean we are advocating for a return to physical campuses in the near future. There is no date to reopen. We are beginning discussions with the district so that when science tells us that’s it is safe to return, we will be ready to do so.”
Los Angeles Daily News CBS Los Angeles KTLA
Students return to San Diego schools
San Diego USD brought some students back to schools on Tuesday for the first time in seven months. Phase One of the district’s reopenings is only open to elementary students who have learning loss or who are special education students with high needs. The sessions vary in length and frequency depending on teachers’ availability and students’ learning needs, leading some parents to complain that some students are getting more in-person help than others. “We’ve been clear from the outset that we’re gonna start slowly,” said Board Vice President Richard Barrera. “We’re gonna emphasize first the most vulnerable students - that’s what we’re beginning this week - and then we’ll move on when we’re confident that we can prevent the spread of the virus on our campuses.”
Central USD students won’t return to campus this year
Central USD students won’t be returning to campuses until after the New Year, despite the county receiving a green light for all grades to reopen schools this week. Schools are allowed to reopen, under strict coronavirus-safety precautions, because Fresno County remained in the red Tier 2 under California’s color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Small cohorts of students with special needs returned to campuses on Tuesday. During Tuesday’s night’s regular school board meeting, the Central Unified trustees unanimously approved a school reopening plan with elementary students returning to campuses January 11, after winter break. Middle and high school students would continue distance learning “with the possibility of returning in the spring,” the plan said. Having students return in January would minimize disruption in the current grading period and minimize exposure from the upcoming flu season, Assistant Superi ntendent Ketti Davis said during the board meeting.
----- CLASSROOM -----
New initiative aims to boost girls’ stem participation
A number of STEM-focused foundations, including the Intel Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the STEM Next Opportunity Fund are partnering to form the Million Girls Moonshot initiative, to help one million more girls into science and technology study over the next five years. “The purpose of the Million Girls Moonshot is to work towards closing the gender gap,” said Dr. Penny Noyce, founding board chair for STEM Next Opportunity Fund and daughter of one of the Intel founders, Robert Noyce. “We are trying to pull together a cross-section of technology companies, government organizations, state and afterschool providers to provide grant funding, in-kind resources and access to resources and STEM mentors.” Though women make up half of the U.S. college-educated workforce, they continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields. For example, they make up just 16% of engi neers, while black and Latina women only make up 2% of that field. With a STEM professional shortfall of about 1m workers in the near future, industry leaders say engaging girls and minorities is critical. The consortium will direct its funds to afterschool science programs, where Dr Noyce said the money will have the greatest impact.
Rebuild civility by teaching kids ‘how to debate’
In an opinion piece for the Chicago Tribune Les Lynn, founder and director of Argument-Centered Education, and Eric Tucker, co-founder and executive director of Brooklyn Laboratory Charter Schools, call for schools to better equip students with the thinking and reasoning skills necessary to make, respond to and evaluate arguments. “That our democracy has sunk so far below civil, reasoned political discourse is reflecting something back to us about our education system,” they say. “The best path forward is to travel right through [division and disagreement]: by teaching in our public schools and demanding from our leaders reasoned, evidence-based argumentation, through civil and routine debate.”
----- WORKFORCE ----
Districts answer latest COVID-19 survey
Education Dive's latest K-12 COVID-19 Preparedness Survey indicates that while few school administrators felt prepared for the coronavirus pandemic, many felt most prepared to equip students with laptops or tablets and to provide meals and other essential resources for families in need when schools shut down in spring. Just 42% felt curriculum was flexible enough to adapt to distance learning however, only 31% had teachers who were prepared for distance learning and just over one third (38%) were prepared to offer distance learning professional development for staff. Across all cases, many of the hurdles, administrators lamented, came down to a question of funding. Many said that they had also been forced to contend with "inconsistent messaging" at the state and federal levels, as well as the greatest health crisis in a century becoming "a divisive partisan issue."
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Rapid coronavirus tests in schools not a 'game changer'
Some state leaders have hailed the new federal shipment of easy-to-use, rapid covid-19 test kits as a “game changer” for schools, scientists are warning that the tests are not a silver bullet against the virus. States and school districts need clear guidance about how to incorporate testing into their plans for tracing and isolating cases of COVID-19, epidemiologists says, and must continue practices such as mask wearing and social distancing to drive down the chances of transmission between asymptomatic individuals. Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, comments: “It has to be part of an overall strategy. We are not going to be able to test our way out of this pandemic.” Michael Mina, a Harvard University epidemiologist who has advocated for the expansion of rapid virus testing, adds that the numb er of tests federal officials plan to distribute is "nowhere near what's needed.”
-----CHANGE IN OUR SCHOOLS -----
Educators Discuss How The Education World Has Responded To The Pandemic
The New York Times (10/14, Tugend, Jordan, Stein) reports that “the pressure on students, teachers, administrators and parents is immense and has aggravated educational inequalities.” Schools “do more than deliver an education: they are a source of food, socialization and internet connections to the rest of the world – along with child care providers for working parents.” The instability “for so many who depend on all that is grim.” However, “in every dark time across history some people rise up and cope – more than cope really.” They demonstrate “resilience, creativity and an ability to innovate.” Some experts “look at these efforts and hope that many will change...how students are taught and learn in the future.” The Times publishes some of the ideas created as a result of the pandemic, such as the #coronavirussyllabus, “team teaching,” and innovative physical education lessons for low-income students.
Analysis: Seven Ways The Pandemic Could Change American Education. An analysis in The Seventy Four (10/14) predicts seven areas where the coronavirus pandemic could permanently change the world of US education: remote learning “will become foundational in American schooling;” school choice will become more popular; more families will turn to homeschooling; youth sports will “separate from the organizational framework of public education;” teachers unions will become weaker; districts will show more interest public-private partnerships; and customizable public school schedules that “get the school job done and meet families’ needs” will become normal.
----- TECHNOLOGY -----
Congress urged to close digital divide
Chiefs for Change, a bipartisan network of state and district education leaders, has published a report outlining some of the strategies schools are pursuing amid the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure students have a home internet signal so they can keep learning, whether classes take place in person or online. The collective’s Send the Signal report looks at how the digital divide is being addressed by America’s school systems; from Texas, where San Antonio ISD has partnered with city authorities to leverage unused “dark fiber” to connect students’ homes to schools’ Wi-Fi networks, to Illinois, where Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Janice K. Jackson has initiated a project to deliver free, high-speed internet service to approximately 100,000 students. Nevertheless, despite such efforts, Chiefs for Change says the digital divide is too great a problem for them to solve on their own, arguing that the federal government should work with internet service providers and others to create a comprehensive and lasting national solution for universal broadband.
----- SOCIAL & COMMUNITY -----
School Leaders Need To Implement Explicit Anti-Racist Policies.
Education Week (10/14, Superville) reports schools in the past decade “have verbally championed efforts to promote equity and stamp out bias – even as data to support those claims have lagged.” In response to the “onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic and the recent killings of Black people this year,” school leaders are “stepping up efforts to create schools that are committed to actively rooting out bias and racism.” Experts say these leaders “need to be explicit that they plan to eliminate biases and create more opportunities for students of color to grow and thrive.” Such efforts “must include hiring the right people, creating a culture where students feel they belong and can advocate for change, creating trusting environments for teachers, parents, and students, and ensuring students have access to rigorous and engaging curriculum.”
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
UC Davis launches program for students with intellectual disabilities
UC Davis is launching a new four-year residential college program for students with intellectual disabilities. The Supported Education to Elevate Diversity (SEED) Scholar program, the first of its type in California, will be for students with autism, Down syndrome, traumatic brain injury and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. The program will start with 12 students in the fall of 2021 and expand each year. It will offer classes tailored to its students and access to other UC Davis classes as well.
----- OTHER -----
Research claims hotter days widen racial gap in U.S. schools
A paper published this week in the journal Nature Human Behavior suggests that rising temperatures are widening the racial achievement gap in U.S. schools offering the latest evidence that the burdens of climate change fall disproportionately on people of color. Researchers found that students performed worse on standardized tests for every additional day of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, even after controlling for other factors. Those effects held across 58 countries, suggesting a fundamental link between heat exposure and reduced learning. But when the researchers looked specifically at the United States, using more granular data to break down the effect on test scores by race, they found something surprising: The detrimental impact of heat seemed to affect only Black and Hispanic students. R. Jisung Park, the paper’s lead author and an assistant professor of public policy at UCLA , said the gap seemed to reflect the fact that minority students are less likely to have air-conditioning at school and at home. The findings are the newest addition to a growing body of research showing that climate change in general, and rising temperatures in particular, have a greater effect on minorities.
NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
About three years ago ABCFT started a working relationship with National Teachers Associates Life Insurance Company. Throughout our partnership, NTA has been supportive of ABCFT activities by sponsorship and prizes for our various events. This organization specializes in providing insurance for educators across the nation. We have been provided both data and member testimonials about how pleased they have been with the NTA products and the opportunity to look at alternatives to the district insurance choice.
To All Members of the ABC Federation of Teachers,
National Teacher Associates (NTA) is committed in our efforts to helping educators through tough times. It’s what we do. After all…in our eyes you are the heart and soul of our communities.
Protecting you and your families has been our goal for over 45 years. Despite the current global pandemic, we are not about to slow down now. We know that many of you have had our programs for years and sometimes forget the intricacies of how they work. NTA wants to help facilitate any possible claims for now and in the future. Fortunately, all claims and reviews can be done by phone and on-line. I personally want to offer my services to guide you in the right direction with your NTA benefits.
We also apologize for not being able to finish the open enrollment for those of you who wanted to get our protection. We are still able to help by extending our enrollment window for the near future. Again, this can be done over the phone, email, or on-line.
Please contact Leann Blaisdell at any time either by phone or email.
562-822-5004
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