KEEPING YOU INFORMED - Negotiations Update By Ruben Mancillas
I will be meeting with my district partner, Dr. Zietlow, on Monday to discuss potential dates for ABCFT’s upcoming negotiations sessions.
This last day of September has me considering the impact of decision fatigue on our members. Decision fatigue is recognized by the American Medical Association as a state of mental overload that can impede a person’s ability to continue to make decisions. Sound familiar? It should since educators are identified as one of the professions most impacted by the idea that after making many decisions, your ability to make more and more decisions over the course of a day becomes worse. By the standard view of decision fatigue, a person is more at risk of experiencing it if they make many decisions throughout the day, feel greatly affected by the decisions they make, make very stressful decisions, make very complex decisions, and make decisions that affect other people in a significant way.
The more choices you have to make, the more it can wear on your brain, and it may cause your brain to look for shortcuts, with the four main symptoms being procrastination, impulsivity, avoidance, and indecision. Suggested ideas for dealing with decision fatigue include streamlining your choices, delegating decisions, making big decisions in the morning, and to develop daily routines. Some of these strategies are easier said than done, of course, but the insight that the stresses and pressures we work under are real can hopefully help us begin to put them in a more manageable context.
Strained analogy alert! My wife and I went to see Roxy Music two nights ago. I can’t imagine a way to make me feel older and less current than for the band to proudly bill it as the tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of their debut album. Thanks a lot, Bryan Ferry. But it got me thinking about the stereotype of the rock and roll touring lifestyle. These now very veteran performers put on a great show with a schedule of ten North American dates spread over twenty two nights. They have a rehearsal schedule, lighting cues, and a set list but still need to adjust to whatever that day’s challenges have been and what that particular performance calls for. Here in ABCUSD, our members have been working directly with students since August 22, with an even more packed calendar of 29 days teaching over the last 40 days. And make no mistake, teaching is both an art and a science but it is a performance as well. We have to be on for so many hours no wonder it can be exhausting. We can and do carefully plan ahead of time but are always adjusting to the given circumstances and dealing with those thousands of decision points that arise day after day. So I will bring the analogy to a close before it collapses; you are all rock stars! You are on tour for 180 shows in front of a challenging audience, with unforeseen pressures and new expectations arising every moment. We likely don’t have all of the resources for self care that rock stars do but that doesn’t mean that taking care of ourselves is any less important. So congratulate yourself on a successful September and get ready for the next leg of the tour. And I’ll consider adding “no brown M & M’s” into our master contract proposal!
In Unity,
MEMBER-ONLY OPPORTUNITY - YOUR VOICE MATTERS
ABCFT is honored to have been chosen as one of three locals participating in a groundbreaking study on the mental health and professional challenges educators face in U.S. schools. ABCFT has secured a small stipend for the first 200 members to complete this important survey. I hope you will take the time to participate in the survey so that ABCFT teachers become educator voices that will shape national policy that directly impacts all educators in the United States. Thanks in advance for your participation. The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.
~ Ray Gaer, President ABCFT
ABCFT members,
Educators Thriving, in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers, hosted 70+ hours of focus groups across the country this summer. By September, 90 members – including some of you in ABCFT! – helped create a definition of educator well-being and corresponding survey questions.
ABCFT is now one of only 3 locals piloting the survey in order to finalize the questions before the survey is shared nationally.
Please click here to take the survey:
The first 200 members to complete the survey from ABCFT will receive $25.
The survey takes 10-20 minutes to complete.
Your response is anonymous - only Educators Thriving sees your email to compensate the first 200.
All members can take the survey; this is not a teacher-specific survey.
The survey is open through October 15. The first 200 members will be compensated for their time (so respond as soon as you are able!) but all are welcome to complete it over the next two weeks.
Thank you for your partnership!
Best,
The Educators Thriving Team
Research@educatorsthriving.org
https://www.educatorsthriving.org/
MEMBER-ONLY RESOURCES
Bullying in Schools: Lesson Plans and Resources for Prevention
Bullying in schools churns everyone’s stomach. Try this popular lesson and resource collection for ways to stand up to bullying and foster kindness, empathy, and understanding.
MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES
Need Help? It’s Just a Call or mouse Click Away
Your well-being is important, so we’ve partnered with Care Solace, a mental health care coordination service, to help you and your family connect to quality care. This is a free resource for you and your family, paid for and provided by ABCUSD.
If you are looking for help with mental health or substance use, Care Solace will quickly and confidentially find available providers matched to your needs.
Contact Care Solace at (888) 515-0595 or visit www.caresolace.com/abcusd.
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Consistent and regular communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with members is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and well-being of ALL ABCFT members. The goal of this weekly report is to keep members informed about issues that impact their working/learning conditions and their mental well-being. Our work as a Union is a larger conversation, and together we make the YOUnion.
Happy Anniversary to the ABC Federation of Teachers! Congratulations on 50 years of educator representation in the ABC Unified School District. On September 1, 1972 the ABC Federation of Teachers signed a charter agreement as the 2,317th union in the American Federation of Teachers (henceforth known as ABCFT Local #2317). ABCFT has had a rich history of educator activism and a strong voice of progressive change as a local of the California Federation of Teachers. Tonight at the DoubleTree in Buena Park, several current and past teachers and nurses will raise their glasses and make a toast to all that has come before and all that this union will do in the future for the teachers and nurses of ABC Unified. Cheers to 50 Years!
A quick school board election update to keep you informed about how the races are shaping up for the three trustee areas currently being contested. ABCFT endorsed and current ABC board member Dr. Olga Rios and Ernie Nishii is being supported by the financial assistance of ABCFT members in the form of COPE donations that are collected during the school year. YOUR COPE dollars are helping these supportive board members to continue to do the important work of listening to administrators, teachers, students, and parents as they make decisions that impact our working conditions, our compensation, and the resources and support we receive for our students. A COPE investment is an investment in your future and I hope that those of you who are not participating in COPE think about giving a $5 or $10 dollar donation to support ABCFTs efforts to support educators' voices in ABC.
A special thank you to the teachers of Cerritos Elementary for our visit this week. Speaking directly to members about the challenges all teachers are facing energizes me to advocate smarter and harder on behalf of ABCFT members. During my visits, I always make it a point to spend time with the site administrators to hear what challenges they are facing and how ABCFT can support them so that they can better meet the needs of their staff. We are all connected, and if principals are struggling with behaviors and the lack of personnel, then you know that those issues are also directly affecting the teachers in the classroom. ABCFT may not represent classified employees or administrators, but we are all connected like the legs of a chair. When one group struggles we all struggle. For example, if ABC cannot attract classified employees for para educator support or noon supervisors etc.…then it impacts us all. I hope that the district administration is looking at the big picture and sees how we are all impacted. Another example of that, ABC is down four custodians. Not having enough custodians impacts how clean our classrooms are and how effective our school functions. These unfilled positions are causing extra struggles when people already have limited bandwidth for even more challenges.
If you aren’t going to be at the event tonight, I’m asking that you raise a glass filled to the brim with your favorite beverage to salute this great YOUnion! Have a great weekend, cheers!
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
When AFT President Randi Weingarten asked me to lead the AFT staff work on the Teacher and School Staff Shortage Task Force, I knew the work would be difficult. But when it comes to an existential threat to education, communities and democracy, the shortage of teachers and school staff is at the top of the list. If schools do not have enough well-trained teachers and staff, it will not take long for our country to look less equitable, and be more receptive to autocracy, lower achievement, less opportunity and less freedom.
The shortage of teachers and school staff is more than a fluctuation in employment. It is society failing its next generation and the people who made the choice to teach and support students. As Weingarten has said, this is one of the most important task forces in the history of the AFT.
In July, the AFT Teacher and School Staff Shortage Task Force released Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? What America Must Do to Attract and Retain the Educators and School Staff Our Students Need.
Join us Oct. 12 at 4 p.m. PST on a webinar for AFT leaders and members where we will share many of the report’s recommendations, but most important, we will offer concrete steps leaders and educators can take now to help retain teachers and school staff.
The shortage did not happen overnight. And many solutions will take time, money and political will to solve. However, not all issues require huge investments or years to address. This webinar will focus on the practical steps you can take now to proactively tackle one of the most pressing problems in American public schools.
I look forward to seeing you on the webinar. Register now.
Rob Weil
Director of Policy, Research and Field Programs
AFT Educational Issues Department
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
Thursday, September 29, 2022, 3:33 pm
Education Department changes guidelines on student loan relief
As many as 800,000 student loan borrowers may not get the debt relief initially promised, after the Biden administration scaled back which loans are eligible for forgiveness, rewriting guidelines this week, NPR reported.
Initially, borrowers whose loans were held by private lenders but guaranteed by the government could consolidate the loans into federal Direct Loans to qualify for the debt-relief plan. That included Federal Family Education Loans, which were common until the FFEL program ended in 2010.
But as of Thursday, according to NPR, the Department of Education “quietly changed that language.”
The guidance now says, “As of Sept. 29, 2022, borrowers with federal student loans not held by ED cannot obtain one-time debt relief by consolidating those loans into Direct Loans.”
https://edsource.org/updates/education-department-changes-guidelines-on-student-loan-relief
----- KINDERGARTEN UPDATE -----
Newsom rejects mandatory kindergarten law
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation Sunday night that would have required children to attend kindergarten, whether through homeschooling, public or private school - before entering first grade at a public school. As he has with other recent legislative vetoes, Newsom cited the costs associated with providing mandatory kindergarten, about $268m annually, which he said was not accounted for in the state budget. Underlining the financial weight of the issue, Newsom has supported similar legislation in the past. Last year, he signed a package of education bills, including one transitioning the state to universal pre-K starting in the 2025-26 school year. Kindergarten enrollment in California dropped nearly 12% in the 2020-21 academic year compared to the previous year, according to the state Department of Education. Nationwide, public school enrollment dropped by 3% in 2020-21 compared to the previous school year, with preschool and kindergarten enrollment dropping at higher rates, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Biden seeks to expand free school meal programs
President Joe Biden hosted a conference on hunger, nutrition and health on Wednesday, at which he pushed to expand access to free school meals for 9m more children by 2032. “In every country in the world, in every state in this country, no matter what else divides us, if a parent cannot feed a child, there’s nothing else that matters to that parent,” Biden said during the event Wednesday. “If you look at your child and you can’t feed your child, what the hell else matters?” In July, a group of Congressional Democrats introduced the Healthy Meals, Healthy Kids Act. In addition to reauthorizing the expired USDA waivers that allowed all students to eat meals for free regardless of income status, the bill would expand access to free school meals by lowering the threshold for what’s known as the Community Eligibility Provision for those programs. That allows schools or clusters of schools to offer free meals if 40% or more of the student population qualifies for free or reduced-price meals. Under the bill, that threshold would be lowered to 25%. Through the USDA, the administration also plans to expand student access to meals in the summer, provide more resources to school meal programs serving Native American students, and advance a new initiative to support schools’ efforts to improve the nutritional quality of meals. Nonprofit group FoodCorps is working with the administration on this, and is committing $250m to its Nourishing Food Initiative. Crystal FitzSimons, director of school and out-of-school time programs at the Food Research & Action Center, said she is excited about the plan, calling it "a key strategy to ending hunger and supporting health, but then also to really support educational achievement and all the positives that are linked to participation in school breakfast and school lunch." “A healthy school meal is integral to the school day, and no child should go without due to inability to pay,” said Lori Adkins, president of the School Nutrition Association. “Research shows school meals support academic achievement and are the healthiest meals children eat.”
The Hill K12 Dive Wall Street Journal
Don’t use state tests ‘punitively,’ Cardona cautions
As states begin to release results from their 2022 assessments, the U.S. Department of Education has urged states to be cautious in how they interpret the data. In a “dear colleague” letter released earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona wrote: “We know that some education stakeholders would have preferred the Department to waive assessment requirements over the past two years, but it was not the time to do so, just as now is not the time to lower standards for students. Used in the right way, data from high-quality systems of assessment can inform instruction and help school leaders drive resources to the schools and students that need them the most.” The message here is, “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” suggests Derek Briggs, the director of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Center for Assessment Design Research and Evaluation.
----- STATE NEWS -----
Newsom signs law requiring California schools to purchase American-made food
Public institutions in California will have to opt for American-made food products starting Jan. 1, 2024 under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Senate Bill 490 states that public institutions, including schools, need to budget for and purchase American-made foods unless they are more than 25% of the cost of imported ones. Bill author, state Sen. Anna Caballero, previously said the state had allocated $611.8m to help school districts cover that extra cost. However, Troy Flint, spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, said the association fought for the $611.8m to cover the already increasing prices schools are facing to comply with the state’s Universal Meals Program, not Caballero’s bill. “Because California is now serving meals to all students, school districts are hiring more staff for the nutrition program and converting part-time staff to full-time and incurring significant additional costs in terms of salaries and benefits." Mr. Newsom recognized the bill will result in additional costs for schools and public institutions, and said that “Any requests for additional resources to implement SB 490 will need to be reviewed and included in the annual budget process.”
California reverses decision on publication of test scores
Changing its earlier position, the California Department of Education will release Smarter Balanced test scores next month and not wait to incorporate them into other data as planned, a department official said Tuesday. “There is no reason to withhold the data,” Malika Vella, deputy superintendent of the initiatives branch of the department, said on Tuesday morning - an announcement that means the information will be released prior to voters going to the polls on November 8th. They will be choosing between incumbent Tony Thurmond and challenger Lance Christensen in the nonpartisan race for state superintendent of public instruction, as well as hundreds of local school board races across the state.
California to weigh making girls flag football a school sport
School athletics officials in Southern California will ask the state to make flag football an official high school sport for girls. The California Interscholastic Federation’s Southern Section voted Thursday in favor of the plan, said Thom Simmons, the section’s assistant commissioner. The state body that governs interscholastic athletics in California is scheduled to take up the proposal on October 7th and vote on it early next year.
----- DISTRICTS -----
LAUSD alters plans for expanded school year
Los Angeles USD has changed its plan to create four optional “acceleration days” to boost student learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of taking place on Wednesdays at what the district had described as strategic points of the school year, the days will fall at the beginning of winter break and spring break under a tentative agreement, United Teachers of Los Angeles announced. Under the original schedule, the first of these days was set to take place in three weeks, on Wednesday October 19th, but the potential value of that particular day had become increasingly uncertain. Under the announced agreement, the original four acceleration days will revert to regular school days and the school year will end four days earlier as a result. Under the new plan, the acceleration days will fall on Monday, December 19th; Tuesday, December 20th; Monday, April 3rd, and Tuesday, April 4th. The teachers union had characterized the acceleration days as a waste of time and money, but accepted the revised schedule as offering a better continuation of learning and “fidelity to the contractual work year. “
Schools scaling back home internet help
Less than half (45%) of U.S. public schools are providing home internet access to students who need it, according to an August survey by the National Center for Education Statistics. The decline in schools giving students Wi-Fi hotspots or covering the cost of home internet, down from 70% earlier in the pandemic, coincides with the end of widespread remote learning and the lack of continued funding for such provisions. Notably, laptops and tablets are still readily available, with 94% of schools saying that students who need a digital device this academic year will be provided with one. While they could benefit from a new federal subsidy, the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides a monthly subsidy to help low-income families pay for internet service, many families are not aware of it. Nationwide, less than 25% of eligible families enrolled in the Emergency Broadband Benefit, a previous iteration of the scheme.
S.F. schools seeing soaring rates of chronic absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism skyrocketed nationwide during the pandemic. In San Francisco, 29% of the school district's 50,800 students — or 14,700 children in transitional kindergarten through high school — were chronically absent last year, according to district data, a historically high number. Before the pandemic the rate was 14%. Notably, individual school data illustrates large disparities in attendance after schools resumed in-person learning in the fall of 2021. Malcolm X Elementary, predominantly African American and Pacific Islander and in the Bayview neighborhood, for example, had among the highest rates, with 89% chronically absent. Stevenson Elementary, disproportionately Asian American and in the Sunset, had the lowest at 3%. SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne cited the district's coordinated care approach, which offers a range of services, including mental health support, health care and access to community-based programs, as one way the district is working to address absentee rates. “It's probably the worst scenario we can imagine for a large population of children, not getting a basic education,” said Carol Kocivar, a former president of the state PTA and an education advocate, of the absentee data. “This is a flashing red light.”
LAUSD makes push to bring chronically absent students back to school
There’s still a long road ahead for the district as it works to bring students back into the classroom. Attendance peaked the first week of school at 93%, but a re-engagement plan from May notes that aside from those chronically absent, some have also withdrawn from the district, with their whereabouts unknown. The district also continues to come across students who are not on its outreach lists, including several when Carvalho conducted home visits prior to the first day of school.
“We came to two sites looking for two or three kids. We found two or three other kids that were not on the list,” Carvalho said that day. “That’s why it’s 10 (thousand) to 20,000. Could be more.”
That’s something that Ofelia Ryan has seen firsthand as a pupil services and attendance counselor at three schools within the district and as president of the Association of Pupil Services and Attendance Counselors. She said that, especially for those bordering on chronic absenteeism, families sometimes don’t realize how many missed days have accumulated over the year.
“I find few cases when the parent really doesn’t believe that school is something important,” Ryan said. She also attributes some chronic absences she’s seen over her 20 years as an attendance counselor to extended vacations.
----- CLASSROOM -----
Students should take financial education classes, survey says
Most adults (88%) in the United States believe that their state should mandate a financial education course for high school students to graduate, according to a new survey by the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) and AmeriSpeak. Some 80% said they wish such a requirement existed when they were in school. “Some states already require students to take a financial education course, and some states are in the process of instituting this curriculum. Americans overwhelmingly agree that learning money skills at an early age is important,” says NEFE president Billy Hensley. Separately, Birmingham City Council in Alabama on Tuesday approved a $1m financial literacy program that will be offered to students at Birmingham City Schools. The city has partnered with IMC Financial Consulting, which will teach financial workshops.
We need to fix professional development for teachers
It’s the second week of August and teachers have returned for in-service training at their school sites. Sitting in the cafeteria, we listen to the same PowerPoint taught by the same person who hasn’t been a classroom teacher in over a decade. As my back throbs from the hard chairs made for kids, I think more about other career options than I do about the presentation going on.
Why am I having to do a training on classroom management, from somebody who doesn’t know my students, when I have reached the highest rating on my prior evaluations from the administration? As I look around at my peers, highly educated champions for students, I don’t see excitement for the upcoming year, I see dread. No longer is there a spark in the air as the school year comes closer. Since the pandemic, more and more teachers are realizing there needs to be a change in the educational system.
The system cannot stay as it was while other systems are changing and thriving. Education is simply stalled.
https://edsource.org/2022/we-need-to-fix-professional-development-for-teachers/678632
How period poverty impacts classroom learning, and what schools can do about it
Twenty-three percent of U.S. students struggle to afford menstrual hygiene products, according to a nationally representative 2021 survey by Thinx and PERIOD, a youth-led nonprofit group focused on combating period poverty and stigma. This issue is especially prevalent among lower-income students and students of color. Compared to 16% of all surveyed teenagers, 23% of Hispanic students reported having to choose between buying period products or food and clothing. The issue was exacerbated by the lack of access to free menstrual products while schools were closed during the pandemic. Not having menstrual products readily available interrupts students' ability to learn. Almost half of Black and Hispanic students, for instance, feel they are not able to do their best school work because of lack of access to period products, compared to 28% of white students. The majority of students say they rarely or never find period products in school bathrooms, according to the survey. Ameer Abdul, the national campaign manager at PERIOD, says the problem is not funding, but what schools choose to prioritize. "For example, when we are funding the school football team but students who menstruate can't even get some menstrual products, we have a real issue on our hands." He added: "If we are not able to have a conversation about an issue, we will not be able to have a conversation about the solution. So in order to have a conversation about it, we need to first break the stigma. And that comes from speaking about menstruation and normalizing menstruation."
----- ADMINISTRATOR NEWS -----
Most principals enduring workforce challenges
Over half (53%) of public school principals reported being understaffed as classes started in August, according to the results of an August survey done by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), an arm of the Department of Education. Sixty percent of those struggling with workforce issues said they were contending with open support-staff positions, and almost 50% cited unfilled teaching jobs. Principals also reported losing positions for teachers and staff. Teacher shortages were most common for special education and the elementary grades, followed by math and English as a Second Language or bilingual education. Principals also reported they were short of transportation workers and custodians. Nearly half of schools with vacancies lacked people to fill mental health jobs, while instructional support staff too are in demand. More than 40% of principals reporting staff shortages said they lacked academic interventionists and 40% said they lacked tutors. NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr comments: “These data points are critical for understanding challenges our public schools are facing, allowing policymakers to provide timely assistance to help our students and educators in areas where it is needed.”
----- WORKFORCE ----
Ed. Dept. awards over $60m to strengthen teacher pipelines
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new program that aims to further address the teacher shortage and help ensure long-term investments in teacher pipeline and development programs across the country. New investments under the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program, include 22 new three-year grants totaling more than $60m, bringing the Biden-Harris Administration’s additional support for teachers through Fiscal Year 2022 grant competitions to more than $285m. The SEED program supports evidence-based practices that prioritizes educators’ growth across the continuum of their careers. In this year’s SEED competition, the Department directed funding to projects designed to support educator workforce through high-quality, comprehensive teacher preparation programs, including those with a strong track record of recruiting and placing underrepresented teacher candidates, and that include one year of high-quality clinical experiences. Recent awardees include the National Center for Teacher Residencies’ (NCTR) Centering Equity, Building & Scaling Teacher Residencies project; Missouri's Community Training and Assistance Center; and the Board of Control for the Southern Region.
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Thousands of California teachers say they are stressed, burned out
A large-scale survey this past summer of California teachers has found that thousands characterize their work as "stressful" and "exhausting," with nearly twice as many as in the past stating that their job conditions have changed for the worse. The survey of 4,632 teachers, commissioned by the California Teachers Association and UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools and administered by Hart Research Associates, details multiple reasons for unhappiness, with those teachers considering leaving the profession citing burnout from stress (57%), and political attacks (40%), followed by a heavy workload compounded by staff shortages. Low salaries, a lack of respect from parents and a lack of a work-life balance also were high on the list. The survey found that one in five teachers say they will likely leave the profession in the next three years, including one in seven who say they will definitely leave. An additional 22% say there is a 50-50 chance they will leave. Asked for four changes to improve retention, teachers cited better pay as the top priority, followed by smaller class sizes, a more manageable workload and more support services for students. Two dozen aspiring teachers also cited the financial burden of tuition and qualifying tests. They expressed positive views of teacher residencies, internships and clinical practice but not the cost.
A simple 'how-are-you?' can help educators make it through the day
Formalized ways for teachers to routinely check on their students and take the pulse of the class are an established best practice in social-emotional learning; however, during a busy school day, the wellbeing of teachers and principals can often slip by unaddressed. Extending check-ins to the adults is part of a growing awareness in the social-emotional learning field that promoting these skills among adults is every bit as important as—some might argue a prerequisite even—for teaching them to students. “If adults don’t have those social-emotional competencies themselves, if they’re not feeling heard, if they’re not feeling valued, it’s hard to then translate that to students,” said Karen Van Ausdal, the senior director of practice at the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL. “The research is very strong that if young people have at least one strong adult connection in school, they are much more likely to stay engaged, they are much more likely to meet with academic success,” and the same idea applies to the adults in the school building, she said. For educators, check-ins might take the shape of a simple Google form sent out every Monday morning, to gauge how staff are feeling, and their readiness for the week ahead. Principals can also do check-ins with their teachers during staff meetings, said Ms. Van Ausdal, by inviting each teacher to share one emotion they’re feeling or asking what has been on teachers’ minds most recently. “Building this culture of collective care, that we are in this together” is what’s important, she added. “We want our students to notice when their peers are isolated, so we want our staff to model that, too. ”
One in five kids struggling with obesity
As National Childhood Obesity Month comes to a close, an epidemic largely tied to poor eating and exercise habits is affecting one in five U.S. children. The most recently available data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that about 19.7% of adolescents aged 2-19 years in 2017-2021 were classified as obese. In all, about 14.7m children throughout the nation suffered from obesity during that time period, the CDC said. From 2017 to 2021, obesity prevalence was 26.2% among Hispanic children ages 2 to 19, 24.8% among Black children, 16.6% among White children, and 9% among Asian children, according to the CDC. The health agency estimates that in 2019, 15.5% of U.S. children in grades 9-12 struggled with obesity. In that same sampling, childhood obesity was most prevalent in Mississippi, where 23.4% of children in grades 9-12 were categorized as obese.
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
More baccalaureate programs coming to California Community Colleges
Two more baccalaureate programs have been approved at California community colleges, the college system’s Board of Governors learned at a meeting Tuesday.
Bachelor’s degrees in respiratory care at El Camino College and automotive technology management at De Anza College recently received full approval. Additionally, seven other programs have received provisional approval but still must receive approval from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.
The expansion of baccalaureate programs at California’s community colleges stems from Assembly Bill 927, a law signed in 2021 expanding a 2014 pilot program creating bachelor’s degrees at 15 community colleges. The new law allows the community college system to add up to 30 baccalaureate programs each year.
https://edsource.org/updates/more-baccalaureate-programs-coming-to-california-community-colleges
----- INTERNATIONAL -----
Darling-Hammond wins major prize for education research
State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor emeritus at Stanford University who founded the Learning Policy Institute in Palo Alto and Washington, D.C., is this year’s co-recipient of the Yidan Prize. Winners of the prize, considered one of the world’s most prestigious, receive $3.9m, half as a personal award and half to scale up their work. Ms. Darling-Hammond will use her funding to broaden Educator Preparatory Lab, a new initiative of the Learning Policy Institute and the Bank Street Graduate School in New York City. Its mission is to strengthen educator preparation in the United States through research, networking and collaboration among ed prep programs, school districts and state and federal policymakers. The Yidan Prize Foundation, a Hong-Kong based philanthropy founded by Charles Chen Yidan, announced this year’s awards Wednesday at the end of an education conference the foundation co-hosted with the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Darling-Hammond received the prize for education research. Yongxin Zhu, a professor of education at Soochow University, received the prize for education development for his work in transforming learning outcomes in China.
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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
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