FYI from BSF, 08.25.23
Summer Reading
As the summer comes to a close and before we all mentally move on to another school year, the team at BSF is sharing our favorite education-related reads, listens, and watches of the summer. We’ve got everything from the extremely nerdy and wonky to a YA fantasy novel. Enjoy!
“Stop Stealing Dreams,” from Akimbo Podcast: Writer Seth Godin gives a talk in Brooklyn, NY about the state of education, poses the question, “What is school for?” Reminds us what school was historically designed to do, labor force for industrial manufacturing, to comply, do what you’re told.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America: “Richard Rothstein, explodes the myth that America’s cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation―that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. The Color of Law makes clear that it was de jure segregation―the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments―that promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.”
A Deadly Education: Harry Potter, if Hogwarts was filled with monsters trying to eat the students and the building itself was the teacher (no adults to be seen). Fascinating fantasy world-building, that makes you rethink what “learning” is!
“Harvard, UMass Tufts update college applications after Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action:” Interesting exploration of how different schools are changing their applications (mostly through added essay questions) in an effort to maintain high levels of diversity. Reviewing the questions, they struck me as helpful not only for diversity but encouraging students to consider the community they’re joining and how they’d want to contribute.
Episodes 170 and 171 of “The Bright Morning Podcast”: I am a huge fan of Elena Aguilar for the resources she offers school leaders, coaches, and teachers that are grounded in equity and compassion. These two podcasts are great for anyone who will be leading Beginning of the Year PD to guide their thinking about adult learning and how to make the most of those spaces.
The Ezra Klein Podcast, “The Teen Mental Health Crisis," Part 1 and Part 2: As a former high school teacher, it’s really frightening to read stories and statistics about the decline in teen mental health in the last few years. This podcast explains the root causes of this crisis and offers practical considerations for parents, educators, and school system leaders for how we can better support teens. It’s a big problem, but the solutions aren’t as daunting as I thought prior to listening.
Abbott Elementary: Who can resist a workplace comedy full of all-too-familiar public school situations? I caught up on season 2 this summer, and it was just the right amount of funny (#TeamAva), heartwarming, and hopeful.
“You Have to Care about these 12 Colleges:” This article explores ways to create greater socioeconomic diversity at elite college institutions in a post-affirmative action world.
“Minding the Gap: Evidence, Implementation, and Funding Gaps in Mental Health Services Delivery for School-aged Children:” This research paper examines the landscape of mental health interventions with an aim towards identifying gaps in implementation fidelity and the subsequent impacts on student outcomes. Using a TN case study, the paper highlights gaps in funding and rigorous research for implementing promising interventions to address children’s mental health needs.
“Colleges Spend like there is No Tomorrow:” This article had some great data on the costs of colleges and how they have continued to balloon year after year. The article provided great data on colleges and college costs, and it made me think about the costs of college for families.
Viral Justice: “Viral Justice is a sweeping and deeply personal exploration of how we can transform society through the choices we make every day. Born of a stubborn hopefulness, Viral Justice offers a passionate, inspiring, and practical vision of how small changes can add up to large ones, transforming our relationships and communities, and helping us build a more just and joyful world.”
How Skillful Team Leaders Impact Learning: Elisa is a former colleague and one of the smartest people I know about effective teacher teams. This is a follow up to her first book, The Skillful Team Leader.
“The Problem with Finding the Main Idea:” This report shows how systemic assessments of student learning that isolate skills such as “finding the main idea” encourage teachers to place an unhelpful emphasis on the teaching of these skills.
“The Simple View of Reading:” The Simple View of Reading is a research- validated framework that indicates the two major components that are necessary to reach the end goal of reading comprehension: language comprehension and decoding. While this framework was created in 1986, many educators have not heard of the Simple View of Reading.
Advocates and community leaders raised alarms about the exodus of Black educators from BPS.
Chantal Lima Barbosa –a BPS alumna– will be Boston’s first Cape Verdean school committee member, finishing the term of Lorena Lopera, who stepped down at the end of the school year.
BPS Back to School Community meeting with Superintendent Skipper on Monday August, 28 at 5:30.
School safety is an issue on community members’ minds that isn’t getting a lot of wide-public attention. This spring, research highlighted the difficulty of implementing discipline reforms.
The Superintendent of the Boston Archdiocese is stepping down at the end of the school year.
New state data collection methods have the potential to provide much more nuanced data to state, district, and school leaders about who they are serving.
The newly proposed ballot question to remove the MCAS graduation requirement received a formal challenge.
A Virginia case with major implications for Boston’s new exam school admissions policy begins its journey to the US Supreme Court.
The Federal Government is making it easier for schools and districts to access Medicaid funding for special education services, which could unlock millions of dollars for providing students much-needed services.
Strategic investment to increase the share of Black early educators in San Francisco could be a model for Boston as the city increases access to early childhood seats.
Another urban school district is clashing with state leadership. This time in Oklahoma where the Tulsa Public Schools superintendent stepped down to avoid a state takeover of the district.
Building background knowledge is also important for building students’ literacy skills.
Summer learning boosts math, but not reading.
State assessment data is starting to trickle in: DC students improved from last year, but still remained below pre- pandemic levels.
Education appears in the first GOP debate of the 2024 Presidential Race.