ABCFT YOUnionews for January 21, 2022
KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Negotiations Update By Ruben Mancillas
The negotiating team met with the district on Wednesday of this week. We received their latest proposal and made a counteroffer in response. We have another session scheduled for next Wednesday, January 26.
I want to personally thank the many members who write with concerns, suggestions, and well wishes during the negotiating process. Thanks also to those who were able to participate in Tuesday night’s board meeting. The speakers were eloquent and our visible presence was a powerful message to the board. ABCFT members have remained committed to their students despite all of the challenges we continue to face. But the term “breaking point” comes up more and more often with good reason. Patience is not an inexhaustible resource. Our members are realistic but they justifiably expect to see a commensurate commitment to them in terms of compensation and support that they have shown toward the district throughout these years of crisis.
As I have communicated to the district at the bargaining table; expectations have only gone up, not down. Members know what the inflation rate is. Members know what the salary schedules are in neighboring districts. Members are aware of how much additional federal and state funding has been made available to help support the extraordinary circumstances we have all been challenged with. Members have even seen new capital improvements like solar parking structures going up in the district parking lot. They have an understandable sense of urgency regarding negotiations producing a positive result for themselves and their families.
The question has been asked, “is there a deadline to finish negotiations?” Technically, the answer is no; the process doesn’t have a set end date but there are a relatively finite number of steps in the back and forth process of bargaining. We anticipate that we are reaching the later stages of this series of steps and hope to be able to share some more definitive news with you soon.
Lastly, some words regarding the confidentiality of negotiations. I understand that members ask “so what is the percentage raise we are proposing?” and express frustration when they don’t receive a direct answer. Here is the rationale: negotiating in public makes it more difficult to achieve a quality deal. Imagine a hypothetical scenario where ABCFT makes an initial public offer of a double-digit percentage increase. It might make our side feel good that we are sending a message about fighting hard but runs the risk of being portrayed as greedy and unreasonable with no further movement forthcoming from the other team. A similar hypothetical public offer by the district of an insignificant single-digit increase could make their side proud to display their fiscal conservatism but cause our members to feel insulted and immediately want to move towards a job action. Both sides can be outraged and dig in their heels regarding any potential points of agreement. It’s counterproductive to good faith bargaining. We don’t want our proposals disseminated on Facebook for discussion and commentary. At that point, we would no longer just be negotiating with the district but with every member of the community who wants to let his or her board member know their position regarding our contract.
We are navigating a balance between transparency and the political reality of the negotiating table. While it may be easier to broadcast every element of each proposal it would limit our ability to bargain a better agreement. The ABCFT negotiating team is committed to fighting for the best possible outcome for all of our members. Confidential negotiation is the optimal method to achieve this goal at this time.
In Unity,
SCHOOL BOARD REPORT
Tuesday evening the ABC school board held the second board meeting of the new year. ABCFT leadership asked teachers to attend the meeting in person or online. Thank you to all that we're able to show their unity by wearing their YOUnion blue polo too. It was important for the board and community to hear how exhausted teachers are yet still dedicated and diligent in providing the best education for their students under these trying circumstances. Board members were implored to show they value teachers by supporting the current negotiations.
Dr. Zietlows COVID Report/Testing kits info, Principals Report on COVID at school sites, School board president Report Soo Yoo, Superintendent’s Report, ABCFT President’s Report, and
Teacher Public Comments (These are a must see!)
Past ABCFT President, Richard Hathaway was honored at the school board meeting by the ABCFT Retiree Chapter by naming their annual scholarship for students in his name for the 2021-2022 school year. Each year the ABCFT retiree chapter selects students who are interested in going into the field of education to receive scholastic scholarships. Congratulations to Richard and for his continued YOUnionews readership.
KEEPING YOU INFORMED
YOUnion Chat Update: Open House - By Tanya Golden
Thank you to the members who were able to join us at ABCFT’s monthly YOUnion Chat earlier this week. During the chat, a member asked if the district has a plan for the upcoming Open House each site is scheduled to host this spring. I was able to pose this question to my PAL partner, Melinda Ortiz Director of School Services. Due to the new guidelines recently released by the LA County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) which have limited the number of people (non-students) who can gather on a school campus. The district has decided all sites will conduct Open House virtually. The expectation is teachers will be in their classroom hosting Open House while parents and students are at home. Be sure to speak with your site/program administrator regarding which digital platform (Google Meets etc.) will be used for Open House.
To remain in compliance with LACDPH, this year’s District Magnet Fair will also be held virtually.
MEMBER-ONLY RESOURCES - Managing Student Debt
Managing student debt with Summer a free member benefit.
Meet Summer—an online resource, started by student loan borrowers who wanted to help others avoid bad information and bad actors in the student loan market. Summer harnesses the expertise of public policy experts to optimize borrower options, and it uses technology to make the process easy and secure. The AFT trusts Summer to help our members navigate the student loan repayment landscape.
Using Summer’s online student loan management platform, AFT members who enroll in this free member benefit can:
Enroll in income-driven repayment plans and manage annual income recertifications for these plans;
Complete the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Employment Certification Form and manage the PSLF certification and application process;
Find other options for loan forgiveness programs, including state- and occupation-based loan forgiveness, and get assistance in applying for them; and
Talk through options with Summer’s borrower success team so they can understand how to best maximize their loan repayment and forgiveness options.
Thousands of AFT members have already joined Summer, reducing their monthly payments by hundreds of dollars a month and saving tens of thousands over the life of their loans!
Are you ready to get your student loans under control today? Summer’s got your back! Enroll for free today.
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 rollout of new projects. Please submit your comments and questions to the appropriate ABCFT liaison.
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.
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.
The short answer is:
Did we settle in negotiations this week? No, but we have another session next week so we are still making progress. Please refer to Ruben’s message for this week's negotiation update.
A transcript of my ABCFT board report from this week's school board meeting can be found here.
A special THANK YOU! to all of those teachers and nurses who attended this week's school board meeting. Your attendance and your comments to the board were valuable contributions to the negotiation process. Teachers who have watched your comments can see themselves reflected in your comments. Thank you for representing how many teachers and nurses are feeling in ABC.
An ABCFT member wrote to some of the negotiating team members expressing her frustration about how educators are not valued for their educational achievements and how in juxtaposition, academic achievements in the business world are valued and expressed in larger salaries. Furthermore, she stated that when in private conversations with younger people it is very difficult to look them in the eye and tell them that being a teacher is the right direction to go. I don’t know about you but I have also had this conversation with budding educators or aspiring students and I find it upsetting that I cannot thump my chest and say that getting into education is the best choice anybody can make as a profession. That is a bummer and sickening because we all went into education to make an impact on students and one would think that would be honored and we would feel like as educators we are valued.
Here is my response to this members email:
First, thank you for being at the school board meeting on Tuesday and I'm glad that your attendance has helped to spark reflection about the state of public education and the systemic problem of salary disparity for educators with higher education degrees in comparison to how higher education degrees are valued in the business world. The slow strangling of public education funding over the past forty years is a major factor for the lack of a proper number of teachers, nurses, SLPs, support staff including substitutes, and minimal numbers of classified employees. Educators have not been valued at the bargaining table at the state or national level and it has gravely impacted us locally. Americans have starved their public education system and have repeatedly shown for decades the lack of value of educators and the public education system while at the same time parenting skills have declined and school systems are asked to be the life raft for a generation of our youngest American citizens. This devaluation of teachers and the teaching profession is playing out before our eyes and young teachers are leaving the profession in mass, completely disillusioned. Who ultimately has paid the price are our students who see a system that doesn't value them or their classroom teachers.
I too have also had the experience of hearing younger people who have expressed a desire to get into education and truthfully I was realistic in my comments to them. Beware. However, as this current system grinds to a halt and falls in on itself, America will have to reinvest in education to save this current generation of students devastatingly impacted by this pandemic. I have hope that those of us who are still in the profession will help to provide guidance on what changes need to happen for public education to continue to serve the needs of our society.
As a Vice President of the California Federation of Teachers, I have the opportunity to speak directly to state and national government officials about what we are experiencing and what changes are needed. I am on a national committee for the American Federation of Teachers that are currently working on a white paper outlining the needed changes to recruit and retain teachers in America's schools. Other ABCFT teachers have been activated and have become guiding voices for CFT and are involved in guiding change.
Pay is the number one priority in attracting young talented individuals to enter the education profession but our current education system is unsupportive of teachers and their professional growth. Not only does pay need to be a priority but the career growth of teachers, their professional skills, their mental health, their physical health also are necessary components for attracting future leaders in education.
I am hopeful when I hear teachers like yourself express their frustration through actions. Taking the time to write to us is a moment of action and I applaud you for taking the time to express your thoughts about this critical issue.
Ruben, I, and the rest of the ABCFT leadership team are fighting like hell in negotiations to gain the (district/board) respect for ABC teachers. Ruben is a brave negotiator and his leadership of the team has been invaluable. Our local fight for pay is being fought out in countless numbers of negotiating tables across the country. ABCFT did make progress this week and we will make more in the coming weeks.
Sorry for the length of my response but your letter sparked something in me. This situation is unacceptable and my promise to you is that ABCFT will continue to do its best to shake the education world with bold ideas and teachers' voices. Changes are coming. The waves are crashing.
As I said in the letter, we are fighting like wild cats at the table for our members. This struggle to be “valued” will continue from the negotiating table to the voting boxes for the next school board election and we will do it together.
In YOUnity!
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
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-----
Hundreds Of Students Nationwide Stage Walkouts To Protest In-Person Classes
ABC News (1/14) reports hundreds of students walked “out of their classes in Boston, Chicago and other cities across the country in protest of in-person learning conditions as COVID-19 rages on.” The Washington Post (1/14, A1, Meckler) reported that while adults “have spent a lot of time and energy fighting over what schooling in a pandemic should look like,” students are increasingly “rising up and demanding that they get a say, too – in places like New York City, suburban New Jersey, outside Washington and California.” Reuters (1/14, McLaughlin, Cox) said that “many protesting students returned to classrooms later, while others went home after taking part in peaceful demonstrations.”
Wired (1/17, Nast) reported many students “felt left out of the conversation” about reopening schools amid the pandemic. Student protesters told Wired about “how they reached out to peers using text messages and social media apps to help shape their demands of their school districts.”
USA Today (1/14) reported that their “specific demands vary,” but students’ requests “largely center around allowing remote learning options as an alternative for those who are worried about coming to school, rather than shutting classrooms down altogether. Student coalitions that have advocated for shifting fully to remote have only called to do so temporarily if schools do not enforce stricter COVID-19 precautions, including more frequent testing and higher-quality masks.” Several student activists told USA Today “walkouts nationwide have offered hope and a sense of solidarity after they’ve felt sidelined by local and district officials in conversations about COVID-19 in schools.” One Boston student said concerns over attending “a breeding ground for COVID, like a COVID petri dish” is what spurred students in her district and elsewhere to participate in the walkouts.
Chicago Students Stage Walkout Friday Over COVID Precautions. The AP (1/14) reported that “hundreds of Chicago students staged a walkout Friday, saying there weren’t enough precautions in place to protect them from COVID-19 despite an agreement between the teachers union and school district to return to classrooms.” The walkout “culminated outside district offices downtown, where the students waved signs, chanted and briefly blocked traffic.” The Chicago Tribune (1/14, Rockett, Yin) reported the walkout came days after the “Chicago Teachers Union voted to approve a COVID-19 agreement with Chicago Public Schools on Wednesday, formally putting an end to their latest dispute over school safety.”
The Hill (1/15, Vakil) reported at least 500 students participated in the walkout organized by Chicago Public Schools Radical Youth Alliance. Students demands included “laptops for virtual learning, including students in discussions over plans regarding COVID-19 safety, adequate quantities of cleaning supplies and better social distancing, among other concerns.” Newsweek (1/14) added the “students also said that they should be able to keep the laptops during their entire time as students of CPS, regardless of whether classes move to virtual due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” A CPS spokesperson told Newsweek the students’ demands will be reviewed by school administrators.
Boston Students Call Out Public Officials For Refusing Remote Learning During Pandemic. The Boston Globe (1/14) reported hundreds of Boston students “walked out of class Friday morning to urge the state to allow remote learning options and provide stronger COVID-19 safety measures in public schools.” Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) “has taken a hard line against a return to remote, saying in-person school remains the safest place for students. His administration has not allowed districts to move instruction online except in limited circumstances with state approval.” Student leaders “say public officials don’t understand how they feel.”
The Daily Beast (1/14) reported the Friday walkout “started off with students urging supporters to contact local and state legislators with their concerns about COVID in schools.” They decried Gov. Baker “for having a lackluster pandemic response and complained that the state Department of Education’s COVID strategy has lacked direction. They claimed that COVID-19 was not the administration’s focus when they went back to school – to study in classrooms they referred to as ‘petri dishes’ – after winter break.”
The Boston Herald (1/14) reported the students’ demands “included personal protective equipment for teachers, proper COVID testing for both teachers and students, and two weeks of remote learning, during which anyone who may have been exposed to the virus could quarantine themselves.” One student moderator said, “Students should not have to risk their lives for their education. Teachers should not have to risk their lives for their jobs.”
Seattle Students Demand Stronger COVID Safety Protocols. The Seattle Times (1/14) reported approximately 100 Seattle students “gathered outside the Seattle Public Schools district headquarters...late Friday morning to demand stronger safety protocols after an increase in COVID-19 cases, along with safety threats, has shut some schools down recently.” The students want the district “to be more transparent about the number of COVID-19 cases it would take to close a school. They’re asking for more mental health resources for students, teachers and the community. And they would like the district to provide a safe space for students and educators after traumatic instances occur.” The AP (1/14) reported the Seattle students “also want Gov. Jay Inslee to change a state requirement that there be 180 days of in-person instruction per school year. Students want more remote learning options and are asking for a meeting with Inslee.”
Oakland Students Threaten Tuesday Walkout Unless COVID Safety Measures Are Met. The San Francisco Chronicle (1/17, Picon) reports, “More than 1,200 Oakland students have signed a petition pledging to skip classes this week starting Tuesday, organizers said, in protest of what they say are inadequate safety measures on campuses in the face of a nationwide surge of COVID-19 cases.” The threat of a student walkout “follows teacher sickouts...that forced multiple Oakland Unified School District campuses to cancel instruction. Organizers said participating students would use hashtags on social media to post about what they are doing instead of going to class.” The student petition “also asks that the district shift from in-person learning to remote instruction.”
Bay City (CA) News (1/17) reported Oakland Unified officials “said Monday in a letter to the school community that they spent last week and the weekend working to meet most of the students’ requests.” For example, the district is “arranging to distribute 200,000 KN95 masks to students at all school sites this week,” and opened “onsite testing hubs on Friday and Monday, with some schools conducting onsite testing twice a week and some offering onsite testing once a week.”
----- NATIONAL GUARD AS SUB TEACHERS-----
New Mexico Asks National Guard To Act As Substitute Teachers
The AP (1/19, Lee, Attansio) reports, “New Mexico is the first state in the nation to ask National Guard troops to serve as substitute teachers as preschools and K-12 public schools struggle to keep classrooms open amid surging COVID-19 infections.” On Wednesday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) announced “the unprecedented effort to reopen classrooms in the capital city of Santa Fe and shore up staffing across the state.”
The Hill (1/19, Beals) reports Lujan Grisham said in a statement that “extreme staffing shortages due to a surge in COVID-19 cases” prompted the initiative. The program specifically “encourages state workers and National Guard members to volunteer to get licensed as substitute pre-K-12 teachers or as child care workers so they can be available to help with in-person learning and child care.”
Reuters (1/19, Hay) adds that interested “guard members and state employees will undergo background checks and an online teacher training course before being sent into schools.” New York Daily News (1/20, Wilkinson) says at least 50 members “are prepared to volunteer,” and guard officials “expect that number to grow.”
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Biden Touts Administration’s Efforts To Keep Schools Open Amid Closures
Politico (1/19, Niedzwiadek) reports President Biden “touted his administration’s efforts to keep schools open during the pandemic on Wednesday as some schools are returning to remote instruction because of the Omicron variant.” During Wednesday’s press conference, Biden “said that while some school buildings have temporarily shut down, the vast majority have continued to conduct in-person instruction. He credited billions in funding passed as part of last year’s American Rescue Plan, as well as his administration’s vaccination initiatives, for helping students and educators stay in school and minimize learning disruption.” The issue “was highlighted during a standoff between Chicago’s teachers union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) earlier this month.” Biden “quibbled with the media’s framing of the issue, saying it gives the public an inaccurate sense of how many schools are closed.”
President defends school policies, downplays recent shutdowns
Marking the end of his first year in office with a wide-ranging formal press conference, President Joe Biden said it had been "a year of challenges, but also a year of enormous progress." Discussing how districts should manage the interests of students, teachers and parents amid the pandemic, Mr. Biden said that schools should remain open, citing funding and supplies provided to school districts to help better mitigate the threat of the virus. He credited billions in funding passed as part of last year’s American Rescue Plan, as well as his administration’s vaccination initiatives, for helping students and educators stay in school and minimize learning disruption. “Very few schools are closing" he said, before going on to question the media's handling of a now-resolved standoff between Chicago's teachers union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot earlier this month that led to days of canceled classes. He went on to say that schools should have the tools necessary to operate safely, and predicted that closures will begin to dissipate. Biden, who closely aligned himself with educators during his presidential campaign, conceded that some schools may not have prudently used the resources available to them “All that money is there,” he said. “There's billions of dollars made available that's there.”
Ed. Dept. completes distribution of $122bn of school COVID relief funding
The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Education has distributed all $122bn in school COVID-19 relief funding from the American Rescue Plan to all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. "We are urging states and school districts to deploy funds now to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the Omicron variant, on our school communities. We continue to encourage state and local education leaders to utilize funds for testing, personal protective equipment, and staff recruitment and retention," said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. "In areas where these funds are being deployed quickly, we are already seeing the positive impact that this infusion of federal support is having directly in schools and communities. We know what it takes to keep our schools open safely for in-person learning, and these funds will help us achieve that goal."
----- STATE NEWS -----
States see to alleviate low-attendance funding declines
Lawmakers and education officials in a few states are seeking changes to school funding formulas to avoid financial harm to districts from pandemic-related drops in student attendance rates. States currently calculate funding allocations in a variety of complicated ways using attendance and enrollment counts or both, and changing student funding formulas often requires legislative approval. A bill in the California legislature from state Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat, would change that state’s funding formula to one favoring total enrollment that factors in how many students are enrolled in a district. Illinois lawmakers, meanwhile, last year tweaked their state’s funding formula for fiscal years 2022 through 2024 to allow districts to use average student enrollments based on pre-COVID-19 levels, if desired. And in Kentucky, a task force is recommending the state legislature consider moving from its average daily attendance funding formula to one based on average daily membership, a calculation of daily enrollment. Some education finance experts have said funding schools based on attendance was outdated even before the pandemic. The Urban Institute estimates if a 1,000-student district with a $15m budget lost 200 students between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, its budget for the 2021-22 school year would decrease by $3m, or from $15,000 per student to $12,000. However, Lance Izumi, a critic of enrollment-based funding, said that it gives public schools little incentive to address the things they are doing those cause students to stop attending.
----- DISTRICTS -----
Learning loss prompts educators to rethink the school calendar
Pandemic-related school closures, which caused an alarming rate of learning loss among the country’s most vulnerable students, have prompted some administrators, including in New York City and Connecticut, to reconsider the school calendar. An earlier start date, a later end date and numerous, elongated breaks throughout the year could allow more timely remediation for children in need, and enrichment for those who are not. Such thinking has received at least tacit support from U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. “Why do we go back to the same system that gives kids two months without engagement in the summer?” he asked in November. “We need to rethink that.” A a less-rigid calendar could allow for greater flexibility for COVID-related emergencies, letting districts more easily consider closing for a week or two to quell an outbreak, knowing they could make up the time later. Harris M. Cooper, Hugo L. Blomquist Distinguished Professor Emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, said it’s too early to make predictions about whether more schools will switch to balanced or modified calendars. But the chaos of the last two years might make it more attractive to families that have already weathered major shifts in scheduling, he said.
----- CLASSROOM -----
Battle over CRT in school districts set to continue, claims study
The effort to stifle the teaching of race and racism in schools has prompted 54 bills in 24 states in the past year, while nearly 900 school districts nationwide serving 17.7m students have grappled with similar bans on race-based instruction in public classrooms. California, with 70 of those districts, has in no way been immune, according to a report by UCLA researchers with the university’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access. The researchers found that communities experiencing the most rapid demographic change, including a decline of white student enrollment by at least 18% since 2000, were three times more likely to be among the 894 districts grappling with the issue. The UCLA study analyzed CRT campaigns, social media groups and media reports to examine what they found to be “shared language tactics and logic” — finding what the authors call a “manufactured conflict,” a purposeful campaign to sow discord and restrict teaching related to race, racism, bias, or equity and diversity. Those involved “try to scare people, predominantly white people, into seizing more complete power over school boards and systems and ‘banning’ discussions of race and diversity that they fear,” according to the researchers. “They also try to scare educators away from teaching children facts about our actual multiracial democracy, ‘warts and all,’ as one teacher put it.”
----- WORKFORCE ----
Texas Guidance Counselor Says Teachers Are “Exhausted” In Viral Facebook Post
Danielle Christian, a high school guidance counselor employed by Paris ISD in Texas, recently told Good Morning America (1/18) that “she has worked in education for 13 years and has never seen anything like what teachers, administrators and students are going through now amid the pandemic – from facing school closures over the past two years to learning loss, experiencing mental health struggles and needing absences due to quarantine and illness.” Over 1,100 students and staff in her district “were absent from school last Thursday. District officials made the decision to close schools through Tuesday due to COVID-19-related absences.” In a viral Facebook post, Christian wrote, “Teachers are exhausted and wiped out. The education world is tired. It’s just the truth.” She continued, “But we all keep showing up and pulling together to keep our schools going and take care of our kids. Teachers are freaking rockstars. The administrators at your kid’s school are, too.”
Scripps (1/19) reports exhaustion “is a common theme among teachers surveyed by the National Education Association.” A union study published last summer “indicated 32% of teachers are considering a new profession.” NEA President Becky Pringle said, “We are seeing educators, particularly teachers, who are either taking early retirement or, even more troubling, they’re just quitting. They’re leaving. They are not going into retirement. They are going into other professions that are less stressful and provide that additional compensation they need.”
Schools struggle to find substitute teachers - and to fill classrooms
School employees are stepping up across the U.S. to provide classroom instruction, as a lack of available substitute teachers compounds ongoing staffing shortages caused by COVID-19-related teacher absences. Some school districts have boosted pay to try to lure back reluctant substitutes or attract new ones, and several states recently eased rules for fill-in teachers. “The staff shortage, and shortage of substitutes, is significantly worse than I’ve ever seen it,” said Debra Pace, superintendent in Osceola County, Florida, which has 74,000 students. More than 300 of the roughly 4,000 teachers at her Central Florida district have called in sick lately, she said. Yet the district is able to find subs just 40%-50% of the time, whereas normally the rate is around 90%. At the same time, those teachers who are able to get to the classroom are facing scenarios where as many as half of students are absent because they have been exposed to COVID-19 or their families kept them at home out of concern about the surging coronavirus. Some of the country’s biggest school systems report absentee rates around 20% or slightly more, with some individual schools seeing far higher percentages of missing students. The schools in Clark County, Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, typically have 90% attendance, but that figure has dropped to 83%. In Seattle, attendance has averaged 81% since the return from winter break. Los Angeles public schools marked about 30% of the district’s 600,000-plus students absent on Tuesday last week, the first day back after the break. “This is really taking a toll on the learning. If you have three kids in your class one day and you’re supposed to have 12, you have to reteach everything two weeks later when those kids come back,” said Tabatha Rosproy, a teacher in Olathe, Kansas, and the 2020 national Teacher of the Year.
AP News Wall Street Journal Los Angeles Times
----- SCHOOL BOARDS -----
Increasing numbers of parent-activists on school boards
Although parents have long served on school boards, a parent-led takeover of school boards is gathering pace across the nation, with mothers and fathers seeking seats, recalls of sitting members or both. The new intake is typically campaigning to restructure American public education so that parents, whether or not they come from an educational background, can serve as final arbiters for a wide range of issues, from whether masks should be optional to what books are available in children’s libraries. The parent rights’ movement, which began in earnest about half a year ago and spans the political spectrum, is showing no signs of abating as parents who won their school board races take office in the new year and start proposing changes, while still others begin plotting future runs. Some candidates have been recruited top-down by national groups like Moms for Liberty, but much of the activism is being led at the local level by smaller networks of angry parents. The push for parents’ rights in education is a break from a more traditional public-school notion in which all residents of a county, not just parents, fund school systems, vote for school board members and hold school officials accountable, said Jack Schneider, associate professor of education at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. “The idea that parents are experiencing less control than they ever have is just wrong. It simply isn’t the case. But it’s an effective message,” he explained.
----- TECHNOLOGY -----
K-12 connectivity on the rise across U.S.
Since 2020, there’s been a 25% uptick in school districts nationwide meeting or surpassing the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) bandwidth goal of 1 Mbps per student, according to a report from Connected Nation. The nonprofit's Report on School Connectivity found that 56% of districts met the FCC benchmark in 2021 compared to 47% in 2020. The progress shown in this report is “crucial,” said Julia Fallon, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, although she added that more needs to be done to improve bandwidth issues. For rural areas facing difficulties funding strong telecommunications infrastructure, public-private partnerships could be a solution, Ms. Fallon recommended. The report found districts pay a wide range of prices for the internet. In fact, the median cost per megabit has decreased from $11.70 in 2015 to $1.39 currently. Over 1,700 districts pay more than $5 per megabit, however, and 746 districts are still paying more than $10 per megabit, according to the report.
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
State to pay low-income college students for community service work
California's pilot Civic Action Fellowship program is a model for an initiative at 45 state community colleges and universities, including Merced, that will award $10,000 grants to up to 6,500 community-service-driven students through the new Californians for All College Corps fellowship. Selected students will be expected to perform a total of 450 community service hours throughout the academic year, focusing on issues that include education disparities in K-12 schools, climate change and COVID-19 recovery. Services may include tutoring and mentoring, conservation efforts and meal delivery. “If you are willing to serve your community and give back in a meaningful way, we are going to help you pay for college,” said California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday, comparing the initiative to the GI Bill. The program is part of a $146m investment in future leaders under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s California Comeback Plan. Funds will go to 16 California State University campuses, including Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Long Beach, Cal Poly Pomona and San Jose State, seven University of California campuses, including UCLA and UC San Diego, and 18 community colleges, including East Los Angeles College and Glendale Community College, in addition to a handful of private universities.
Student affordability views impact college enrollment
Students are more likely to enroll in college if they believe their family can afford the cost of attending, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics. The center found a 20-percentage point difference in actual enrollment between students who thought their family could afford college versus those who didn’t. The data comes from NCES' High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, which surveyed more than 23,000 9th grade students nationwide and tasked them with answering questions between 2009 and 2016. The center then reviewed college transcripts in the 2017-18 school year, analyzing views of college affordability and employment three years after high school. Bill Ziegler, a Pennsylvania high school principal and board member of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, said he’s not surprised by the NCES findings. “I think students don’t want to put a burden on their family, and that’s where I think as school principals we have a responsibility to come alongside students and teach them how they can afford college even beyond what their family can contribute to scholarships and other things like that,” Ziegler said.
California’s undergraduate enrollment down around 250,000
California’s fall 2021 undergraduate enrollment dropped by nearly a quarter-million students since pre-pandemic fall 2019, according to a survey released Thursday. The report from the National Student Clearinghouse shows that California saw an overall decline of more than 99,000 — or 4.3% — in undergraduate enrollment from fall 2020 to fall 2021, driven largely by a 9.9% drop in community colleges. The overall one-year enrollment drop is less than the decline of 148,113 in fall 2020 when students were online. Nationally, enrollment dropped from fall 2020 to fall 2021 by 3.1% — a loss of 465,300 students, bringing the combined enrollment losses since fall 2019 to more than 1m. California saw the eighth-largest percentage drop in community college enrollment, after Washington, New York, Maine, Mississippi, Oregon, Pennsylvania and South Dakota.
U.S. college enrollment declined again last fall
Total undergraduate enrollment dropped 3.1% from the fall of 2020 to the fall of 2021, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has reported, bringing the total decline since the fall of 2019 to 6.6%, or 1,205m students. Tens of thousands of students, many of them low-income, were forced to delay school or drop out because of the pandemic and the economic crisis it has created. The new data showed that enrollment in community colleges was down 13.2%, or 706,000 students, compared with 2019. The number of students seeking associate degrees at four-year institutions also fell, as did the number of students aged 24 and over. “Without a dramatic re-engagement in their education, the potential loss to these students’ earnings and futures is significant, which will greatly impact the nation as a whole in years to come,” said Doug Shapiro, the executive director of the research center.
----- INTERNATIONAL -----
How school closures are impacting children around the world
New research published this week in JAMA Pediatrics offers a view of how school closures are affecting students across the world. The study tracked many studies on the pandemic's impact on children in Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Japan, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the U.S., and found that 18%-60% ad strong “distress,” especially symptoms of anxiety and depression, which affected more than 1 in 4 adolescents in some countries. Child protection referrals also dropped, with the decline ranging from 27% to nearly 40% across countries and studies. "The toll that school closures and social isolation has had on kid's mental health cannot be overstated," said Dr. Danielle Dooley, medical director of Community Affairs and Population Health in the Child Health Advocacy Institute at Children's National Hospital. Dooley wrote an accompanying editorial that was also published in Pediatrics but was not part of the new research. "As the latest Omicron wave has shown, these discussions are not behind us. We must continue to fully weigh how each decision can impact the lives of children," Dooley added.
----- OTHER -----
NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
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 online. 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 online.
Please contact Leann Blaisdell at any time either by phone or email.
562-822-5004
Leann.Blaisdell@horacemann.com
Click here to schedule an appointment
No comments:
Post a Comment