Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Hey FCC, Step Up and Make Sure Internet Reaches the Families Who Need It Most

In the 1920s, radio was an essential communications device—and it was free. In the 1950s, television became an important means of communication—and it was free. In 2020, why isn’t internet free when we need it to educate our children? It’s time for the FCC to step in. Broadband should always be free to students.

Students who don’t have broadband access are severely disadvantaged. The next 18 months will likely require sporadic sheltering in place and remote learning solutions. Schools, parents and communities are struggling to pay for a few months of internet access, but we need to recognize that learning must take place at school and online at home … forever.

That means every student should have access to broadband anywhere, anytime—to level the playing field and help close the achievement gap. Academic success means the ability of students to do homework AND to explore the world online.

When schools closed, Learn4Life quickly distributed thousands of laptops to our students. These days, laptops are under $200—less than the cost of textbooks for one semester of high school. So, the return on investment is easy to justify, but the big issue is the lack of internet access.

In the schools I lead, 85% of our 23,000 at-risk students don’t have internet access at home. This is more than a significant competitive disadvantage. Their families don’t have access to the basic lifesaving information we access through the internet on a regular basis, such as public data about COVID-19 and where to get tested, solutions for how to create your own masks, and community resources for food, medical care and shelter. Basic civic and economic information anyone needs to function in the modern world isn’t part of their world. They don’t have access to news, candidate information, free job training or online employment applications. Families without internet access are shut out.

Most families do have access to a smartphone of some sort, and it is a vital lifeline. Low-income parents will often pay for their phones before they pay for rent, or sometimes even food. This makes sense because cell phones connect them to jobs, church and family. I even witnessed a teen selling his sneakers to get cash to add minutes/data to his cell phone. Being connected isn’t a luxury. It is a necessity.

Some of our students were writing their papers on smartphones before we got laptops into their hands. They made do, but cell phones don’t always have the unlimited data needed for online education. Video chats with teachers, group collaboration, YouTube and Vimeo downloads, document sharing, e-books and online research all require significant broadband access. Full-time school online requires much more than two gigabytes of data downloads per month.

Learn4Life is struggling to find the 19,000 hotspots we need—and the telecom companies are charging us for devices that used to be free. Prior to COVID-19, my telecommunication providers would GIVE me a hotspot to access WiFi if I signed up for a year-long $10 per month WiFi contract. Now, WiFi hotspots are hard to find. The advertised two months of free WiFi requires a year-long contract at $35 per month, making WiFi more expensive than laptops. Getting broadband consumes resources needed for teachers, counseling, academic intervention and eventually, school cleanliness and nurses.

When we return after stay at home orders end, we likely will have a year of sporadic remote learning requirements when outbreaks need to be addressed. But the plain truth is that our modern lives require ubiquitous WiFi, like clean air and water, shelter and basic nutrition, and students should not be penalized based on their parents’ ability to pay. It is time that we recognize that students of all economic backgrounds need to be connected.

FCC requirements to support public access to telecommunications has long been part of U.S. policy. Radio and television were supported by advertising, but public access to cable broadcasting was an active part of the last century. Just in the last decade, eRate became a vital program that enabled every school in the country to get connected to the internet. Policymakers knew that the proper functioning of our schools demanded this basic infrastructure. The COVID-19 crisis has done a simple favor in forcing us to recognize that student learning outside of the classroom is just as important as inside. Eliminating this necessary barrier to 21st century learning is a practical and simple way to help reduce inequity in our education system and build success in all students.

Broadband should be free for students always.

Colorado News https://coloradomedia.co

AP Classes Move to YouTube with Unannounced Celebrity Guests – by Frederick Hess

Trevor Packer

Trevor Packer, head of the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board, is responsible for the 38 AP courses taken by more than 3 million students each year. Last week, he announced that AP testing would be continuing this spring in spite of school closures. I recently had the chance to ask Trevor about how coronavirus is affecting this year’s AP tests. Here’s what he had to say.

Rick: What exactly is happening with AP testing this year?

Trevor: We had all of this year’s exams printed and boxed up and ready to ship out to schools when it started to become clear that many would never reopen this academic year. Simply canceling all AP testing seemed initially like the most viable option. But students and educators had worked all year long with hope and trust that they would have an opportunity to pursue college credit. And when we surveyed AP students nationwide, we were surprised that the desire to proceed with testing was no different from what we see when schools are open: An overwhelming 91 percent of AP students reported a desire to take the AP exam at the end of the course. Their comments filled 900 pages, noting that so much of what they had been working toward had dissolved: no graduation ceremonies, no prom, no athletic competitions, no senior trips, but they could still study, could still learn, could still earn college credit. Some spoke about the increased need for college credit as their families faced uncertain financial futures that put at risk years of college preparation. Others spoke simply about the need for normalcy, an ability to control their destiny by finishing out the final weeks of their AP course and sitting for the exam. To serve them where they are—in their homes—we needed to implement a testing model that would be fair, inclusive, secure, and acceptable to the thousands of colleges and universities that receive AP scores.

Rick: How are colleges going to treat the scores? Will course credit be awarded this year?

Trevor: We’ve spoken with hundreds of colleges—and they’ve consistently confirmed that they will continue to use AP scores as they have in the past. The big state systems that receive the largest number of AP scores—the University of California and Cal State systems and the University of Texas systems—are among dozens of state systems that have made public statements of support, while many elite private colleges ranging from USC to Vanderbilt, from NYU to Yale, have also confirmed their support. After all, for decades colleges have always accepted AP scores from shortened AP exams taken by students in emergency conditions. The only difference is that this year, virtually all AP students are in such conditions.

Rick: How do you write tests that students can take on a smartphone or iPad? Are the questions going to look different from in past years?

Trevor: The questions themselves are a subset of the question types asked on the longer AP exams. Students have traditionally handwritten their open-ended responses and can continue to do so this year, photographing their handwritten response with a smartphone and uploading it into our platform. Or they can type their responses on desktop or laptop. Math and science students are primarily planning to handwrite their responses, although some report that they will be typing. In contrast, English and history students are mostly planning to type their responses, although some plan to stick with handwriting. For the AP world-language exams and the AP Music Theory exam, all of which require audio responses, students will download a free app through which the exam prompts will be heard and the student responses are recorded.

Rick: What are you doing to address technology-access problems?

Trevor: In order to support students who need resources to take AP Exams, we are connecting students with efforts underway in their schools and districts to address the digital divide, and ensuring that students understand how to use their existing technology to participate in the course and exam. For students who have no other options, we are providing chromebooks, tablets, and MiFi devices to students who can’t obtain them from their schools. We’ve purchased most of these ourselves for this purpose, and Amazon is providing the devices for any AP Computer Science students who need them. We have a team of 50 staff who have temporarily taken on the assignment of making sure these needs are met, and are calling students who have reached out to us for support.

Rick: Have you had to make allowances for the fact that some students will have lost weeks—maybe months—of instruction time? Are you adjusting the test for this?

Trevor: It’s important to remember that AP courses are typically taught every day, all year long, in contrast to meeting every other day for one semester, as most college courses do. So by the time schools closed in mid-March, many AP teachers were at or near the end of their syllabus, entering several weeks of intensive review of fall and winter content. And while 98 percent of AP teachers are still teaching their courses through distance-learning platforms, we wanted to provide free, supplemental support for those students whose AP courses were on pause, so we identified about 60 of the nation’s finest AP teachers to begin running daily AP classes on YouTube—and these classes have generated much excitement among AP students and teachers; 5.8 million have viewed them so far, live or recorded. And we think students will be excited about some of the celebrity guest lecturers who will soon start appearing unannounced in these classes.

All this said, we need to provide schools with flexible timeframes for finishing any unfinished course content, so we’re focusing this year’s shorter exams on content drawn from approximately 75 percent of the possible content we cover on the longer three-hour AP exams. Psychometricians have identified subsets of questions that have strong correlations to the questions we won’t be asking this year, so that the shorter exam will have high predictive validity, as usual with AP exams. This will enable students to focus on that material for the exam, in the same way that many college final exams often focus on a subset of the material rather than everything from September through May. Analysis shows that student performance on questions from 75 percent of the curriculum has a very high correlation to student performance on questions about the remaining topics.

Rick: In the past, AP tests have been administered with strict time constraints. How are you dealing with this?

Trevor: This year’s tests also have strict time constraints, and student responses will not be accepted once the timer for the exam elapses. Students will see this timer clearly on their screen during the exam, counting down to a five-minute period in which students can submit their responses before the exam closes.

Rick: Are you concerned about the lack of moderation influencing the validity of the scores? How are you preventing students from googling answers in one tab with the test open in the other?

Trevor: We’re only including exam questions this year that do not contain points for information that can be found merely through Google or a textbook. Instead, we’re sticking with the types of exam questions that present the students with a particular scenario or set of primary- or secondary-source documents and require the students to apply their content knowledge and skills to analyzing and constructing arguments related to those scenarios or sources—a skill that simply cannot be learned from Google in 45 minutes. In addition, we’re applying a range of security technologies and processes to prevent and detect cheating, plagiarism, and impersonation. We’re not disclosing most of those in advance, but we have shared that all responses will be routed through plagiarism- detection software, and to provide an additional level of validation, each AP teacher will receive copies of all their students’ exam responses. While we are not relying on teachers to be experts at detecting plagiarism, teachers want to view their students’ responses. After all, it’s highly unlikely that a student who has written mediocre historical analyses all year long is suddenly and mysteriously perfect on test day. We will report to colleges and universities the names of students who attempt to cheat, so we strongly discourage such attempts. Students will have very unhappy surprises on test day if they attempt to submit work that is not fully their own.

Rick: What else would you want to say to students preparing to take these exams?

Trevor: I want students and their teachers to know how much we care about doing the right thing for them. I want my leadership of AP to be sufficient to their hopes and ideals, and while I don’t have a financial plan to break even on this effort, our board of trustees, which is comprised of educators, not businesspeople, felt strongly that we simply needed to act, to find a way to support the hopes and desires of educators and students. So that’s what we’re doing. This is a massive investment for us—building new exams, new technologies for at-home testing and test security, and new online scoring models to route millions of student essays to professors’ homes for at-home scoring this summer. Doing all of this will perhaps require more of our reserve than simply canceling the exams would have; we just don’t know. But what we do know is that this is something that most educators and students want from us, so we’re working around the clock to make it happen. I’ve been deeply moved by the passion so many educators and students continue to demonstrate for learning advanced material despite the isolation and challenges they’re experiencing.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Frederick Hess is director of education policy studies at AEI and an executive editor of Education Next.

This post originally appeared on Rick Hess Straight Up.

Read more from Education Next on coronavirus and Covid-19.

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Play Is Essential for All Children, Pediatricians Insist – by William Doyle

Chester E. Finn Jr.’s review in the Winter 2020 Education Next of our book Let the Children Play reveals a startling lack of knowledge of medical guidelines for children in school, including children in poverty.

Finn contends that our policy message, the need for more intellectual and physical play in school, “portends damage to children and society at least as severe as the practices the authors rightly deplore.” The reason, Finn asserts without evidence, is that playful teaching and learning “does little harm to middle-class kids,” but “for children from troubled circumstances it’s a recipe for failure.”

In fact, the exact opposite is true, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, representing the nation’s 67,000 children’s doctors, which declares in its 2012 clinical report on play and children in poverty that “the lifelong success of children is based on their ability to be creative and to apply the lessons learned from playing.”

In the report, the AAP says that “play should be an integral component of school engagement,” and “for children who are underresourced to reach their highest potential, it is essential that parents, educators, and pediatricians recognize the importance of lifelong benefits that children gain from play.” The doctors added: “It could be argued that active play is so central to child development that it should be included in the very definition of childhood. Play offers more than cherished memories of growing up, it allows children to develop creativity and imagination while developing physical, cognitive, and emotional strengths.”

Some self-styled education reformers may see playful learning and teaching as a “recipe for failure,” but the nation’s children’s doctors believe that “play, in all its forms, needs to be considered as the ideal educational and developmental milieu for children,” including children in poverty. The power of play is also well understood by our teachers. Unfortunately, their views are often overruled by the assumption by some non-educators that play somehow threatens discipline and achievement.

Play is the learning language of children, and a critical foundation of life success. Teachers and pediatricians know that in school it can take many forms, including recess, free play and guided learning through play, playful teaching and learning and experimentation without fear of failure, and creative physical and intellectual expression through the arts and high-quality physical education. All children need it in regular doses, including and especially children in troubled circumstances.

An argument against play in school for any group of children is a reckless violation of the clinical position of America’s pediatricians and an insult to our teachers and students, and should be dismissed as such.

William Doyle and Pasi Sahlberg are authors of Let The Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Colorado News https://coloradomedia.co

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

When Schools Closed by Coronavirus Will Reopen: a State-by-State Checklist-- by Melissa Fall

Since we most recently updated this graphic, even more states—including Massachusetts, Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia—have announced decisions to close school buildings for the remainder of the academic year, bringing to 36 the total number of states with schools physically closed until August or September. Washington, D.C., will also keep school buildings physically closed to students through the end of this school year.

U.S. school closures because of the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 began in New York private schools March 3, expanded to some Seattle-area public schools on March 6, and have rapidly swept the country. Education Next published its first article on the issue, “Closing Schools To Slow a Pandemic,” March 9. A March 25 article, “Covid-19 Closed Schools. When Should They Reopen?” included then-current information on the duration of announced school closures, along with a discussion of the factors to consider in deciding whether to resume. The current timetable for schools to reopen is updated in the infographic below. If the pattern holds, some of the reopening dates may get pushed back even later. While schools are closed physically, many, though not all, are providing some kind of distance learning or online programming.

 

Statewide School Closures

Source: Council of Chief State School Officers; Education Next research
Note: * Recommendation only.
**Recommendation only, districts are allowed to reopen if local social distancing requirements are lifted.
All data as of April 21, 2020. New York City’s mayor has announced that the city’s public schools will be closed for the remainder of the academic year, though the governor of New York has insisted that no such decision has been made and has denied that the mayor has the authority to make it.

 

Read more from Education Next on coronavirus and Covid-19.

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Monday, April 20, 2020

“The Decision To Reopen Will Be Much More Difficult” – by Frederick Hess

Josh Starr

Josh Starr, CEO of PDK International, previously served as superintendent in the Montgomery County public schools in Maryland and in Stamford, Conn. Josh has been immersed in conversations with teachers and education leaders across the nation regarding how they’re responding to the coronavirus. I thought it worth checking in with Josh about what he’s hearing and on any thoughts he could share. Here’s what he had to say.

Rick: Putting on your old superintendent hat, what are all the things that school leaders have to be thinking about right now?

Josh: Beyond the basics of getting online instruction going and feeding kids where appropriate, superintendents are in a “hurry up and wait” period. They have to do all of the planning necessary to deliver instruction and serve vulnerable populations. They have to keep track of legislation at the local, state, and federal levels and respond where appropriate in order to plan or access funds. They have to ensure adherence to union contracts and employee agreements and negotiate flexibility where appropriate. They have to be in constant touch with their boards and other elected officials. They have to be available to media and attentive to local listservs, discussion boards, and social-media posts. They have to coordinate with local agencies. Most importantly, they have to communicate regularly with their employees, students, and families about what’s going to happen and when. But they also don’t know what might happen tomorrow or next week if the governor decides to close school for the rest of the year. All of their planning for what’s happening now may not be relevant if the game changes.

Rick: How well are superintendents doing at balancing all these responsibilities?

Josh: I’m not sure any of us really know, beyond what we read in the Twitterverse or on Facebook, although it’s great to see how some groups are starting to track what districts are doing. From what I see, the rock stars out there continue to shine, and everyone else is going about their business, but it’s frankly hard to tell the reality on the ground.

Rick: Can you talk a bit about the mechanics of closing and reopening schools?

Josh: Physically closing is reasonably straightforward; the main issue is communications and allowing staff to access necessary materials at a certain time. Schools won’t be “mothballed,” meaning utilities will still be on in anticipation of reopening at some point. The decision to close in this kind of situation is typically made in consultation with local and state health officials, although we’ve seen governors make the call throughout the country. The decision to reopen will be much more difficult, as there will need to be reassurances to staff, families, and students that schools are safe places. If tests are available and individuals can be controlled, then it’s a matter of thorough cleaning and the typical things you do before the start of a school year. Communication, as always, will be key, in order to reassure parents and staff that it’s safe to go back.

Rick: In the meantime, what are some of the practical challenges in getting distance learning up and running?

Josh: The first challenge is obvious—access to hardware, software, and broadband for typical students, English-language learners, and students with disabilities. Once that’s figured out, there are two strands of work: staff supervision and instruction. Central-office leaders, including those focused on English-language learners and students with disabilities, should be designing lessons, vetting and supporting technology, determining policy issues, and assisting teachers. Teachers need to be given clear direction about what, when, and how to teach virtually, and then they need clarity on assessment and grading. There also needs to be a customer-service strategy and hotline for technical issues for teachers and kids and a way for parents to ask questions. Again, communication is key.

Rick: You mentioned policy: What policy questions do school leaders need to be thinking about when it comes to school personnel?

Josh: Classroom teachers make up a little more than half of a typical district’s employees. So, what is everyone else doing during this time? How are-central office administrators not involved in instruction, paraprofessionals, custodians, and secretaries being deployed? Employee agreements and union contracts will have to be discussed and opened up if necessary to account for new demands, especially if the economic downturn forces a reduction in force and involuntary transfers. Can new teachers be hired virtually if the standard practice has been face-to-face with a demonstration lesson?

Rick: And what policy questions should school leaders be thinking about when it comes to students?

Josh: Districts will have to consider Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act implications if someone gets Covid-19 and other parents need to be informed. FERPA is also a consideration when coordinating social services with other agencies for the most vulnerable kids, as I discussed in my latest PDK column. Districts also have to consider “acceptable use” policies that ban social-media contact among employees and students, as teachers may need to use it to conduct lessons.

Rick: What about academic policy questions?

Josh: On the academic side, assessment, grading, and end-of-year completion requirements are probably the biggest policy issues to consider. Additionally, there needs to be a mechanism for ensuring that lessons and instruction are standards-based, unless states waive that requirement.

Rick: OK, let’s talk about spending. What are the big funding-policy issues?

Josh: On the financial side, there are questions about flexibility. Will the feds and states allow districts to roll over Title I, II, and III dollars? If there’s a minimum reserve required by local statute, will that be waived in the face of the coming economic downturn? Also, many districts purchase technology through request for proposals or state contract and sometimes use capital dollars for hardware purchases. As they may want to accelerate those purchases, will they be allowed flexibility?

Rick: What are you hearing from the field about how educators are dealing with these adjustments?

Josh: We surveyed our PDK members and Educators Rising students and teacher leaders; here’s what they said. One really interesting finding is the disconnect between the social and emotional learning supports that teachers say they need and the lack of focus on that by administrators. I actually think that when we reopen schools, the SEL needs of adults will surpass those of kids, as kids are resilient, and employees and parents will be super-stressed. High school seniors in particular are bummed about missing end-of-year celebrations and want a lot of positive reinforcement from parents and teachers.

Rick: OK, last question. What are you seeing that’s most heartening?

Josh: These crises tend to bring out the best in people, and the immediate attention to equity issues was both heartening and not surprising. I think when we all have an opportunity to breathe and debrief, the major inequities in our society and the realities of serving such a range of children will be more apparent to more Americans. I also think that we’ve been seeing a lot of patience from people, at least as far as I can tell. Everyone seems to understand that this is completely different from anything we’ve ever seen and appear to have some tolerance; at least a former super can hope.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Frederick Hess is director of education policy studies at AEI and an executive editor of Education Next.

This post originally appeared on Rick Hess Straight Up.

Read more from Education Next on coronavirus and Covid-19.

By: Frederick Hess
Title: “The Decision To Reopen Will Be Much More Difficult” – by Frederick Hess
Sourced From: www.educationnext.org/decision-reopen-will-be-much-more-difficult-starr-coronavirus-covid-19/
Published Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 09:01:46 +0000

The Education Exchange: How Schools Manage Education During Covid-19 Closures – by Education Next

The former superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, Joseph Olchefske, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss how schools are operating amid the closures due to Covid-19, including scenario planning and how to deliver education while physical campuses are closed.

Listen to the podcast now.

Follow The Education Exchange on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher or here on Education Next.

— Education Next

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Saturday, April 18, 2020

Our Children Can Not Return to College Now, So We Required to Make Certain They're Connected

Once again, our kids and communities are going to be hit hardest when the last respiratory droplet of the coronavirus dries up.

That’s what I thought to myself recently while standing in front of Jesse Owens Community Academy.

The walls in my house were finally closing in, so I took a break from the shelter in place provision and ventured out for a walk around my neighborhood. 

On that excursion, I gained an appreciation for the simpler things in life—a renewed sense of safety and security in moving to a neighborhood in Chicago that was a little more walkable than the one I’d lived in the majority of my life. I listened to birds chirping and picked up a visual reminder that it’s time to start lawn maintenance. That experience offered a brighter side to this pandemic.

But that moment was short-lived as I was thrown back into reality when I turned the corner of 124th and State Street where the elementary school stood.

Opportunity Gaps Will Widen

Since the spread of the COVID-19 virus, I’ve been most concerned about its impact on the lives of Black, Brown, poor and other marginalized students. So at that moment, I naturally started to think about the fate of the mostly low-income students at the Level 2, intensive support public school and all those in similar situations around the country.

Here are the facts. 

Before this pandemic even hit, in some of the most progressive cities across the country, there were significant opportunity gaps between Black, Latinx and White students that I and other activists have been fighting to close. 

Now, with students being out of school due to social distancing guidelines, these gaps are sure to widen, even with the district’s rollout of remote and e-learning. One of the most concerning and glaring gaps is the digital divide.

Kids Can’t Learn Online Without Internet

Nearly 200,000 families across Chicago are without internet. Statewide, 71% of survey responses from school districts identified obstacles in remote teaching, with less than 10% having the ability to teach solely online. 

While some internet providers have announced that they’re providing low-income families with free internet services through the Keep Americans Connected Pledge, those seemingly generous gestures come with strings attached. For example, up until recently, families that had outstanding balances with Comcast weren’t eligible to take advantage of their Internet Essentials program which offers 60 days of free internet. 

Because of the efforts of Oakland activist Dirk Tillotson, Comcast felt the pressure from over 2,000 Oaklanders and recently removed those barriers for low-income families. 

But Comcast is just one of more than 650 internet service providers across the country. To influence other ISPs, we need the Federal Communications Commission to step up and lead.

Like the other providers, the FCC has an initiative called the Lifeline Program where they offer “…up to a $9.25 monthly discount on service for eligible low-income subscribers.” They also have the ability to provide coverage in areas that are typically dead zones.

However, during the COVID-19 crisis, they’ve only gone so far as to waive some standard restrictions but low-income users still have to pay monthly usage fees. That just won’t do. 

The FCC needs to follow suit and go even further by imploring our nation’s telecommunications companies to provide low-income families with free internet, no strings attached. 

And people around the country approve this message. That’s why chiefs of education are inundating the FCC with letters. That’s why other activists and I are rallying our communities to pressure the FCC for change now, not later. That’s why outstanding teachers are pointing out that denying internet to students right now is akin to denying them their right to free public education.

So if remote and online learning are our short-term solutions to administering public education, it has to be all hands on deck to fully support that right and our most high need families. 

The FCC can narrow the digital divide, but only if we in Chicago, throughout Illinois and across the United States use our collective voices to demand what’s right. 

By: Tanesha Peeples
Title: Our Kids Can’t Go Back to School Right Now, So We Need to Make Sure They’re Connected
Sourced From: educationpost.org/our-kids-cant-go-back-to-school-right-now-so-we-need-to-make-sure-theyre-connected/
Published Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 23:54:38 +0000