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Just as COVID hit some communities much harder than others, schools across the U.S. suffered disparate academic losses in the wake of the pandemic.

But new research points to a surprising finding: Students within the same district seemed to experience similar academic setbacks, regardless of their background. In the average district, white and more affluent students lost about the same amount of ground in reading and math as Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income families.

To researchers, that suggests that factors at the school district and community level — like whether students received quality remote instruction and whether communities experienced a strict lockdown — were bigger causes of test score declines than what was going on in students’ homes.

“Where children lived during the pandemic mattered more to their academic progress than their family background, income, or internet speed,” a team of researchers wrote in a new report.

The report offers some insight into why school districts experienced a wide range of academic losses during the pandemic. Citing pre-pandemic evidence that learning loss can persist for years without major interventions beyond normal instruction, it also points to the need for more intensive academic recovery efforts in some places. Those findings come as many schools are under pressure to reach more students with extra help like tutoring, and school leaders are trying to figure out the best ways to spend the limited COVID relief funding they have left.

Key points:

• Teacher-leaders are an integral–but under-utilized–part of a school
• School leaders can secure teacher buy-in around new initiatives through teacher-leaders

The typical leadership structure in a school is quite rigid, with administrators and teachers filling their roles separately. In this model, teacher skills are only utilized inside of the classroom, leaving teacher leadership potential on the table.

Because this is true in almost any school building, it is time for administrators to reimagine teacher leader roles and leverage teacher leadership, specifically at the grade level or in content teams. Many schools have positions such as “Lead Teacher” or “Content Team Leader,” which is a great starting point. The next step is transforming these established positions, or creating similar models, and implementing them across your school. This should lead to actionable steps taken by these teacher-leaders, and the loosening of the reins by administrators.

Leading Grade Level Initiatives

Rapport and community built at the middle leadership level is more responsive to student interests and needs. The foundation of any successful school is a strong school community where teachers and students can build a solid relationship over the course of the year. Quite often, this is artificially imagined by district experts as X or Y initiative in each classroom. Instead, the model needs to move to a teacher determined and led initiative.

A top-down community building set up by administration might be a pep rally for all grades. Not an unpopular choice, as it builds rapport between the students and the school. Given more time and thought, that same space can instead be used to build rapport between students and teachers.  A teacher leader would converse with their team to determine a community building activity that might be a better fit for their students. This might include a trust building activity outside, a teacher vs. student basketball game, or a community service project. Similarly, the activity can more accurately reflect student interest and can be an opportunity to be culturally responsive to the school community. The activity itself doesn’t matter, but rather the student and teacher’s voice.

Key points:

• Flexibility and ease of use should be important parts of decision making
• Meet today’s needs, but keep tomorrow’s needs in mind

Modern technological advancements affect virtually every area of daily life, and today’s educational institutions are looking to new digital tools to help improve student achievement and engagement while fostering collaborative learning environments for both in-person and remote learners.

To maximize a system’s effectiveness and ensure investments pay dividends for students and instructors, decision makers and school technology managers must maintain a strong understanding of all the available solutions, devices, and platforms that can meet their needs. While differences in location, age range, and budget naturally affect technology decisions and opportunities, there are several key factors central to any successful implementation.

Keep It Simple, Schools

This old adage may be a cliche, but it’s as true as ever. Ease of use is the most direct predictor of how often a classroom technology will be used, and how effective it will be. Given the strict class schedules followed by most institutions, educators may hesitate to plan lessons using a digital display or software solution if it proves to be unreliable or introduces disruptions to the classroom. It needs to work during every class, every day, without requiring special procedures or assistance that eats up class time.

Simplicity can come in many forms, including secure connections that eliminate the need to log in and out, broad support for various online communication platforms, wireless connections that reduce installation complexity, and device-agnostic compatibility that natively accommodates all users.

Key points:

• Communication is key for all those involved in special education
• Don’t forget to think creatively and look at the big picture when framing students’ goals

If you’re heading into your first job as a special education teacher, congratulations. Not only will you be able to use the knowledge you developed as a student to make a difference in children’s lives, you’ll be doing it in the most needed position in U.S. schools.

Two-thirds of schools with staffing shortages said special education is the hardest area to staff, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

I’m sure the excitement of landing a position was mixed with the fear we all face when starting a new job. The demands on special education teachers are unlike any other position in schools, and because of shortages, you may be asked to tackle a bigger role than expected when you start.

While your job will be thrilling, frustrating, and exhausting, sometimes all on the same day, I do know there are successful strategies that can help you make the needed adjustments to be effective while at the same time maintaining a necessary work/life balance.

As a principal, you have the privilege of leading a school and making a positive difference in the lives of countless students. You have the power to create an environment of education, respect, and integrity. You are also responsible for ensuring that your students receive the best possible education and that their educational and social outcomes are improved through your leadership. Leading with integrity and improving student outcomes is a task that requires dedication, hard work, and a willingness to be open-minded and creative.

The following are 10 strategies for new principals to lead with integrity and improve student outcomes:

1. Establish a Vision: Establishing a clear school vision is the first and most important step for a new principal to lead with integrity and improve student outcomes. This vision should be based on the core principles of integrity, respect, and excellence and should be shared with your school staff, students, and parents. This vision will guide the school and should serve as a rallying point for everyone to strive towards.

2. Build an Inclusive School Community: Creating an inclusive school community is essential for improving student outcomes. This means creating an environment where all students are respected, celebrated, and included, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or any other social identity. This involves actively creating a safe and welcoming environment, such as encouraging open communication and dialogue among staff, students, and parents.

ChatGPT is barely six months old, but AI is already a buzzword in K-12 education.

It grabbed the attention of decision makers immediately, earning a ban from NYC schools in January of 2023, with other large districts following. Others are embracing the technology, with voices like Sal Khan encouraging educators to teach with AI.

As school leaders rush to take sides, it’s important to remember AI is unproven and unvetted, especially for school and district-level solutions. Instead, it’s critical for leaders to realize that most schools can greatly improve how they manage critical daily functions using existing, effective, and easy-to-implement technology.

Issues extend beyond cheating

While cheating was the immediate worry, there are deeper concerns about AI in schools.

For instance, how will it affect students’ abilities to do challenging tasks? A Google search replaced a trip to the library card catalog with a few keystrokes. However, students still needed to do something with the information. What happens when typing a few words into ChatGPT is enough to shortcut entire assignments?

Educators are embracing restorative justice practices to facilitate safe and relational school environments and address inequities in school disciplinary practices. Research-based guidance offers insights on how to structurally support educators through restorative justice implementation, and there are resources for teachers and support staff as they integrate restorative practices into their roles.

Educators play an important role in restorative justice (RJ) implementation–they are often tasked with ensuring that RJ practices are implemented in classrooms, and they engage in many of the day-to-day interpersonal RJ practices. Because transitioning to RJ is a long and challenging process, it is necessary to provide educators with resources that can help them along the way. Without these broader systemic supports, it is possible that RJ programs may not be equipped to be successful in the long term.

With the need for systemic support for educators in mind, here are some ways to support educators in playing an active role in the development and implementation of RJ programs.

1. Provide educators with training, coaching, and resources to recognize their roles within their school.
To start, it’s important for educators to recognize their role within their school systems, the power they wield, and how to incorporate RJ into their role. To support this growth, consulting and partnering with RJ experts through professional development trainings and coaching services can help educators navigate the transition to RJ.

eSchool News is celebrating 25 years in 2023, and during a March contest, 25 winners took home Amazon gift cards, with one additional grand prize winner receiving an Apple iPad.

Winners in the Celebrate 25! contest included curriculum coordinators, school office managers, classroom teachers, principals, technology directors, and school library professionals.

From being among the first new outlets to bring awareness to edtech initiatives such as one-to-one device programs in K-12 schools, to covering the myriad ways the COVID-19 pandemic has changed what education looks like, eSchool News continues to bring new developments, ideas, and innovations to its audience of K-12 decision makers, IT leaders, and classroom educators.

Here’s what some of our winners had to say:

Grand prize Apple iPad winner Talita Pilart, the office manager at William Logan Stephens Middle School, said: “eSchool News is an essential resource for educators, providing valuable digital content on integrating tech in education to maximize instruction and transform learning experiences.”

Here at Eagle Pass Independent School District, we’re right on the border of the United States and Mexico. Approximately 95 percent of our students are Hispanic, and most of them speak Spanish. Ours is a tight-knit community where many people live next door to family members, which is wonderful, but it also brought some challenges during the pandemic.

COVID just kept cycling through the community over and over again, and it was common to hear people talking about how they’d had it a half dozen times. The number of people who died in our community was heartbreaking, and it scared a lot of people. The New York Times even published a story in August of 2020 about the high rate of new infections here.

When we returned to completely in-person schooling, families didn’t want to send their students back to school. They were scared, and they didn’t understand why we couldn’t do another year of virtual school.

Before the pandemic we had excellent attendance. We’re a Title I district, so many students counted on the free breakfast and lunch they’d receive for attending. But during the pandemic, our attendance was frighteningly low. At its lowest point, attendance was approximately 5 percent, which put our funding in jeopardy. Even after our schools reopened, attendance only reached the 70-73 percent range.

Educators participating in a recent survey overwhelmingly believe that the Covid pandemic has increased student mental health needs–and in many instances, mental health issues are the biggest obstacle to school safety.

These latest statistics are found in the 2023 School Safety Survey from Raptor Technologies and the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO). Through the survey, Raptor gathered insight into a wide range of school safety and student wellness challenges school safety decision-makers face today. 

The survey surfaced critical data and insight on obstacles related to school safety and security processes, such as physical security, safety drills and procedures, and emergency response planning. In addition to 60 percent of respondents citing “mental health issues” as the greatest school safety obstacle they are encountering, 78 percent of respondents indicated the mental health needs of their student population have increased since returning post-Covid.

Mental health affects how children handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices. Early intervention is the most important and effective way to support a student who may be experiencing mental wellbeing issues they are not equipped to manage. However, over 50 percent of respondents indicated they aren’t fully equipped to assist with the mental health-related needs of their students.

Since formalized education was in its infancy, legislators, educational leaders, and governments worked together to develop models that make education more efficient and cost effective–but they often fell short of serving the needs of students or enriching their lives. And, while people under the age of 18 comprise 25 percent of the global population, it never occurred to most people in positions of authority to ask what they need from their educational systems.

Students experienced great tumult these past few years, especially because of the global pandemic. This singular event put a spotlight on the challenges of quality and equity in education. And it is students who can help change how the world’s young people learn.

In September 2022, the UN convened the inaugural Transforming Education Summit, with the ambition to elevate education to the top of political agendas and spur action considering global school closures caused by COVID-19 to address the issues faced by students during this time. 2023 also marks the “halfway point” to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, with SDG4: Quality Education to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

It is against this backdrop that the Transforming Education Survey was launched by the World’s Largest Lesson, in partnership with UNICEF and UNESCO. This uniquely global research gave voice to those not usually heard and represented a diverse group of students from across the world, with 37,000 students responding from 150 countries.

Are girls really underrepresented in STEM? Yes. 

In the U.S., the workforce is pretty evenly split between men and women, but in STEM fields men make up 73 percent of the workforce to women’s 27 percent. Why?

It’s easy to want to find a well-meaning solution for this disparity, or even to brush it off as unimportant. But achieving a gender parity in STEM fields (particularly computer science, engineering, and programmers, among others) isn’t just a feel-good social justice crusade. The number of open tech jobs far outpaces the population of traditionally qualified candidates—data projections have pointed to a global shortage of 85 million tech workers by 2030.

It’s not a matter of encouraging girls to pursue STEM programs just for the heck of it, to prove they can and earn a good paycheck—it’s a matter of graduating enough highly-skilled workers to meet economic demand.

Still, the imbalanced statistics for the genders in STEM are damning. What can K-12 schools do to play their part in preparing the next generation for a talent-hungry workforce?

When I joined our district in 2021, I was asked to review its overall communications and ensure that we were communicating effectively both with our families and with the surrounding community. Across our 13 schools, it was immediately apparent that our current platform wasn’t meeting expectations.

That platform didn’t have the features and resources we needed to be able to reach our communication goals. We started looking for a better option by researching online and speaking with other districts about what they were using.

Through that exercise, we learned about ParentSquare and decided to implement it. Here are six ways that our new approach to communications has transformed our district:

1. Multilingual translation capabilities. Our primary languages are Spanish and English, so having a platform that offered translation was important for us. Our new platform comes with built-in language translation capabilities in over 100 languages and lets us deliver consistent messaging to parents and community stakeholders. 

The word ‘metaverse’ has certainly been used a lot recently, specifically within conversations around the advancement of technologies and the ever-changing landscape of how we work and live. More often than not, it is usually connected to the gaming industry and does not tend to come up in conversations about education. However, the AI-powered virtual world is becoming increasingly appealing to content creators and educators as they recognize how it can be used to improve engagement and creativity and create personalized learning programs.

What is a predictive metaverse?

A predictive metaverse is a hypothetical concept that refers to an advanced form of a virtual world that is powered by AI and machine learning algorithms. In this scenario, the metaverse would be able to predict and anticipate the actions and behaviors of its users. It is essentially taking virtual learning to the next level.

This concept of the predictive metaverse is based on the idea that as virtual worlds become more sophisticated and realistic, they will also become more intelligent and able to analyze data in real time. The predictive metaverse would use this data to understand the preferences, behaviors, and intentions of its users, and then provide personalized recommendations, predictions, and feedback based on that understanding.

For example, in a predictive metaverse, an AI algorithm could predict the behavior of users in a virtual marketplace, such as what they are likely to buy, when they are likely to buy it, and how much they are willing to pay. This information could then be used to optimize the marketplace, improving the user experience and increasing sales.

According to The Washington Post, more than 331,000 children at more than 350 schools have experienced gun violence during school hours since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. And while school shootings tend to capture news headlines, they are not the only ill plaguing schools today.

According to the CDC, about one in five high school students report being bullied on school property. These numbers do not include the faculty and staff that may have also been affected by these situations. Not to mention the increase in severe weather events – in the first three months of 2023, schools across the nation have scrambled to secure buildings and protect students because of heavy snow, rain, flooding, tornadoes and wildfires.  

The unfortunate reality is that it’s not a matter of if an emergency impacts a school–it’s a matter of when. And when an adverse incident occurs, time is of the essence. Here are three tips to help educational leaders effectively manage safety gaps and mitigate risks in their school community and ensure a swift response.

Revaluate current safety plans

The backbone of emergency preparedness is a comprehensive, well-articulated and practiced plan that identifies important resources, key stakeholders, and communication methods that will be utilized throughout an incident. At a minimum, plans should be reevaluated before the beginning of the school year and then again at the beginning of the calendar year to ensure that new protocols and technologies are being considered and implemented for every scenario. For example, schools in the normally wildfire-prone areas out West may want to revisit their emergency plans after the flooding that has polarized that part of the country in 2023.

The United States is experiencing a national education shortage of teachers leaving the profession in droves, coined “The Great Resignation” due to high anxiety, burnout, safety concerns, low salaries, and challenging job demands. This shortage is further fueled by plummeting enrollment in teacher preparation programs.

The Wall Street Journal reported that at least 300,000 public school teachers and other staff left the field alone between February 2020 and May 2022. Recent McKinsey research shows that nearly one-third of U.S. K-12 educators are considering leaving their jobs.

While this situation creates immediate problems for schools, like hiring qualified teachers from a shrinking pool of candidates, it also creates secondary problems, like the troubling trend that the teacher shortage is creating surrounding professional development (PD).

Carving out time for PD can be extremely difficult for educators, especially when their district cannot offer that time during the school day or as an option for time off. Teachers are also already overwhelmed with their work, so adding one more course or event to their calendars is challenging and sometimes not allowed. Yet, professional learning is critical to increasing student achievement by as much as 21 percentile points.

What is micro-coaching?

Micro-coaching is a workflow model that had its roots in business organizations pre-pandemic and has relevance for professional learning in schools. Micro-coaching is a form of coaching that involves brief, targeted, and focused interactions between a coach and an individual or a group. Micro-coaching aims to provide bite-sized, actionable learning, feedback, and support to help individuals improve specific skills, behaviors, or performance.

It seems hard to believe, but the pandemic in the U.S. started three years ago. With all the changes COVID-19 brought to schools, perhaps the one that most people forget is how the virus altered the delivery of education.

While everyone is happy remote learning and hybrid models are pretty much over, it isn’t accurate to say education has returned to what was “normal,” pre-pandemic instruction.

The main reason school looks different is that districts bought a heap of specialized technology just to keep instruction alive during those three years. A 2022 survey by the Consortium for School Networking shows that more than 80 percent of U.S. schools now have a device for each K-12 student. That’s way up from pre-pandemic numbers, where about two of three high schools and middle schools were one-to-one and less than half of elementary schools had a device for each student. And that’s only counting student devices–not the needed network improvements, teacher training, or the other myriad purchases required to create a robust network both in schools and at students’ homes.

While this outlay for technology resets the bar of what is expected for schools, now and going forward, it also brings up some powerful questions. Can schools afford to use all the new technology they have? More importantly, however, can they afford to maintain all this equipment in the long term? 

A recent McKinsey survey reports that districts still have $130 billion in unspent ESSER funds to allocate in the next three budget cycles. Slightly more than half of the 260 district officials surveyed said “they were struggling to assemble the internal strategic-planning and operational capacity to make and execute spending decisions in the face of competing priorities and ongoing disruptions.” These same officials expect IT services costs to rise between 6 percent and 8 percent over the next three years. 

Last October, newspapers around the country reported the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card. And just like in previous years, the headlines weren’t positive. This time, though, it was even worse than usual. It was the first time students took these biennial assessments since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and based on the results, it was quite clear our country’s students had suffered greatly. Results had dropped in both reading and math in nearly every state in the nation. But beyond that, what did the tests prove?  

Not much, according to the many superintendents I’ve spoken with. My organization, the Institute for Education Innovation, recently hosted a conclave of innovative educators, along with business and nonprofit leaders in the education field, to discuss some of the thorniest topics in education today. NAEP was among them.  

It can be tough for school superintendents to publicly criticize this nationwide assessment, which has been congressionally mandated for decades, but behind closed doors, they had a lot to say. One participant even used the words “tar and feather” when talking about the people who came up with this assessment system—in jest, of course. But the fact is, feelings around NAEP are strong. 

Their issues with NAEP generally fell into three categories.  

1. NAEP is a distraction, with zero impact on classroom instruction. It’s not really designed with that in mind. State-by-state results are dutifully reported every two years (and overall results in some large urban school districts are reported, as well.) But if your state ranks low, there’s no guide path towards improvement. There is no prescription to help raise proficiency levels. Most districts aren’t large enough to have an impact on statewide results, anyway. “I’m not concerned about NAEP scores,” one superintendent said. “I’m concerned about my own students. I’m concerned about Tier I instruction.”  

Data access is critical when educators need to make informed decisions about curriculum, assessments, academic and social-emotional interventions, and more. So how are superintendents using data–and can they access it quickly and effectively in order to use it?

A national poll from the Data Quality Campaign and AASA, The School Superintendents Association surveyed district superintendents to find out they use data to support their students and schools.

Data is an important part of superintendents’ decision-making and it provides insights about student and school performance. Data gives school and district leaders confidence that students are on track for success.

Still, despite their current data-informed insights, superintendents say they want access to more data.

Here are some top lessons from that poll:

1. Ninety-eight percent of superintendents say they would be more confident in their abilities to make decisions for their district if they had better access to information.

2. Ninety-nine percent of superintendents feel that state data could be more useful. This type of state data could be made more useful with tools to help superintendents
act on the information and more training and ongoing support for analyzing, reporting, and communicating the data.

3. Ninety-three percent of superintendents say they have started collecting new data during the pandemic, and nearly all (94 percent) who have initiated new data collection agree: the new data is giving them useful information and insights.

4. Ninety-two percent of superintendents agree that data about students’ learning and academic progress is an important part of getting kids back on track after the pandemic.

5. Eighty-seven percent say they can find all of the data that they need to understand whether or not their school is effectively preparing students for next steps. Twelve percent have only an anecdotal understanding of what happened to some students after they left.

6. Superintendents are using data to make changes and share information with communities. Nearly all report using disaggregated data in some way–95 percent use disaggregated data at least once during the year, and 25 percent use disaggregated data once a week or more.

When an unexpected crisis occurs—say, a global pandemic that forced our entire education system to transform–we believe that eventually, the distress and upheaval will evolve into calm and control as the recovery process winds down.

As educators, we’re still waiting to take that collective sigh of relief.

The Institute for Education Innovation (IEI) wanted to hear how superintendents were feeling about 2023. So, as a result, we brought them together with edtech CEOs and other industry leaders at our inaugural IEI Conclave to determine ways we can tackle today’s biggest K-12 challenges as a unified team–and do it with hope and confidence.

Teacher Retention and Recruitment

A systemic shortchanging of the profession continues to drive the teacher shortage. While conclave attendees agreed that a salary bump can help boost retention, true satisfaction occurs when educators feel empowered, recognized, and respected.

Districts can start by offering apprenticeship programs for aspiring teachers and mentoring them during those first critical three years in the classroom–the period when they’re most likely to quit. In addition, superintendents stressed the importance of ensuring a barrier-free pipeline for educators interested in administration and providing wellness programs for educators.