Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship
This Policy Outline provides an overview of media literacy and digital citizenship, including definitions as they appear in multiple settings. It also includes examples from three states that address digital citizenship in legislation and one state that has convened a media literacy task force.
What’s in Biden’s Rescue Plan for Schools?
Watch this video from Alliance For Excellent Education breakdown and discuss the executive orders from the White House, Biden’s American Rescue Plan, new staff in the administration, and new legislation to address learning loss.
Discussing Race in PK-12 Classrooms, Why It’s an Essential Skill
We exist in a world of relationships, and therefore, it is imperative that we examine our country’s and our education system’s historic relationship with racism and students of color before we endeavor to implement antiracist policies in our programs. In this session, the AACTE takes a look back at the central historic systemic inequities that have created an environment in which a majority of educators are ill-prepared and unwilling to name and discuss race and racism in classrooms. From that historical perspective, they look at its effects on discipline and special education systems, both of which maintain systemic inequities and exacerbate racial discrimination for students with intersectional identities.
Despite COVID-19, standardized testing may force English learners back to school campuses
Schoolchildren who are still learning English typically take a federally required test shortly after the winter break that measures their fluency in the language. This school year is far from typical, of course, and many – if not most – of the country’s roughly 5 million public school English learners are receiving instruction at home. ACCESS, an English-proficiency test used by most states that takes up to four hours to complete, can’t be done remotely.
The Biden Administration and the 117th Congress: The significance for AACTE members
With a new president and the start of a new Congress, AACTE’s Senior Director of Federal Relations and Policy, Mike Rose, provides a preview of what AACTE and its members should expect in 2021, and how members can use their voice to advocate on behalf of educator candidates and the profession.
Report: K-12 schools saw 66% jump in overall safety incidents in fall
K-12 schools saw a 66% jump in the number of overall safety incidents during the first three months of the 2020-21 school year when compared to the same time last school year, according to a report from Gaggle, a security management system used by districts to monitor student activity, that pulled data from 4.5 million students and 3 billion items within school accounts. Specifically, the increases were spread across four kinds of incidents: suicide and self-harm (83%), violence toward others (63%), nudity and sexual content (135%), and drugs and alcohol (59%).
Tracking how the coronavirus is impacting school districts
From the shift to distance learning to the impact on school budgets, the Dive collecting news, analysis and expert advice on how K-12 is responding to the pandemic.
As reopenings move forward, so do plans to maintain online learning options
West Contra Costa Unified School District plans to continue its K-12 virtual learning academy, necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, through at least the 2021-22 school year, EdSource reports, noting the district will also offer a virtual visual arts and performing academy as well as a career technical academy for a more robust distance learning experience. Though district schools will likely open for in-person classes in the fall, the district will keep the virtual option available for families that aren’t yet comfortable sending students back. The virtual academy will include live lessons and guided assigned work, and its teachers will not be instructing in-person classes.
Are U.S. Schools Ready to Move from Traditional to Personalized Learning Environments?
Today, society requires new skills from its citizens. The technological age needs lifelong learners. People who collaborate, solve complex problems, and are open, flexible, and creative. They understand the effects of online marketing and how to protect their privacy online. Their working lives are relaxed—nine to five is losing its meaning. How can we enable such learners in an education system that no longer models the world our into which our students will step? We can’t. Massive change is essential, but how does the transformation happen, and where are schools and districts in the journey?
Measuring the Impact of the Coronavirus on Teachers, Students and Schools
The Biden administration is set to give educators and school leaders the very thing that the previous administration refused them: a centralized data collection to help them understand the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on students and teachers alongside the status of in-person learning for schools and districts across the country. The directive, which was included in an executive order signed by the president last week and falls to the Institute of Education Sciences to facilitate, is part of the Biden administration’s sprawling plan to curb COVID-19 in the U.S. and get the country’s economy and school systems back up and running. It’s a herculean task, given the country’s 13,000 school districts have, for the most part, been going it alone for the last 10 months, operating without any substantive guidance from state or federal officials.
