FYI from BSF, 05.28. 21
Education, Re Centered?
Over the past year, MassINC Polling Group has done impressive work tracking the perceptions and experiences of Massachusetts families during pandemic learning. With the release of its fourth poll this week, we get another snapshot, as well as some insight into how things have shifted over time.
We see four big takeaways to highlight.
1.) In-person learning has gained significant favor. Families cite it as the most impactful intervention, and the vast majority are planning for full in-person learning in the fall.
2.) Race matters. Across essentially all areas - continued remote options (see above), desiring additional academic opportunities, discipline, curriculum, etc. - attitudes have varied consistently across racial lines.
3.) In contrast to earlier polling, more families are now worried about their kids catching up academically.
4.) Given this, it makes sense that families are very aligned on resources for student needs. And they want federal dollars to pay for it.
This data is timely. As cities and towns close their budget planning for next year, good policymaking (and state guidelines) call for engagement with families to support the transition back to in-person and accelerate (not remediate) student learning and well-being.
In Boston, this data is particularly timely. The second meeting of the commission to provide recommendations on federal dollars was held last evening. A series of other opportunities for the public to weigh in have been announced before the July 30th deadline to draw funds through the state.
It is still unclear, however, what this engagement means. At last night’s meeting, no actual plan was presented to spend the nearly one half billion dollars. Without a comprehensive plan to respond to, the majority of the meeting featured comments or questions from the 32-person panel. For the second time, public comment essentially did not start until the meeting was over. Commission members were tasked to think about what percentage of the dollars should go to schools.
Several commission members, including the small number of parents and educators on the commission, raised questions about the urgency of planning. Boston Public Schools could have already accessed as much as $123M in March to use for the remainder of this year and next year. Waiting until July had a consequence. Anything the commission recommends cannot be implemented until after school starts again in the fall, and therefore is not a part of any schools’ planning right now.
Notwithstanding the fact that school is happening now.
New York City is offering free summer programming to any child who signs up; Lowell is, too. Washington, DC created tutoring and small group instruction targeted to its most needy students. Philadelphia already determined spending categories. Chicago leveraged federal funds to increase its budget next year by over $200M. San Antonio is essentially adding a month of school and enrichment.
There are still three more commission meetings and 63 days before BPS has its next opportunity to access federal funds. We will continue to watch this - we stood a simple web page to follow along.
But we aren’t waiting. This week we launched our Re-Centering Schools Initiative, a toolkit and grant funding to help schools put evidence-based practices into action in their classrooms.
Reopening in Boston, MA, and Beyond
At another active state Board meeting this week, Commissioner Riley rolled out the state’s roadmap for recovery, with an emphasis on reconnecting with students and families, assessment, and ensuring rigorous curricula.
School-based COVID cases in Massachusetts continue to drop to very low levels.
There were initial plans and discussions about remote learning options/virtual schools continuing in Boston and Massachusetts. That was until last night, when the state announced required in-person learning this fall and lifting most COVID-19 restrictions then, too. New York City is doing this, too. Expect a political debate on the science of masks.
Assessment continues to have its discontents, both in Massachusetts and around the country. Locally this past week, approximately 0.07% of all Massachusetts teachers publicly refused to administer the MCAS, with 0.001% being disciplined as a result.
Other Matters
The first education forum in the 2021 mayoral race (hosted by the Boston Teachers Union and Boston Education Justice Alliance) was held last night. In addition to introductions, candidates were asked about the attributes of quality schools, elected versus appointed School Committee, special education inclusion, facilities, and many others items through a "lightning" round. Video here.
First, an investigation was released by BPS detailing inappropriate (“weird...cult-like”) counseling in a student organization. Then, more (very disturbing) details were reported in the Boston Globe. Then, BPS announced that it was investigating more.
This incident was briefly addressed at the Boston School Committee meeting on Wednesday night. The agenda also included a nice tribute to the late George Cox, who was an indefatigable educator and volunteer at the Nathan Hale, one of our partner schools. There were also reports from the Boston Special Education Parent Advisory Council and on moving to a uniform, more equitable grading system.
A year after the murder of George Floyd, May 25, 2020 continues to reverberate through schools in questions around school police and the politicization of critical race theory. The weekly email from DESE had some particularly good resources to reflect and adapt curriculum and instruction.