Four years after the pandemic shuttered schools, we all want to be done with COVID, but the latest analyses from three assessment companies paint a grim picture of where U.S. children are academically. While there are isolated bright spots, the general trend is stagnation. One report documented that U.S. students did not make progress in catching up in the most recent 2023-24 school year and slid even further behind in math and reading, exacerbating pandemic…
When Celeste Gravatt first heard about a data breach in her kids’ school system in February 2023, it sounded innocuous. “I didn’t really think anything of it at first,” Gravatt says. Officials at Minneapolis Public Schools called it a “system incident,” then “technical difficulties,” and finally, “an encryption event.” She says it was only when she checked social media that she realized the true extent of the attack, and what it could mean for her…
Although e-cigarettes have been around for more than a decade, vaping rates have skyrocketed in recent years, especially among teens. E-cigarettes are now the most frequently used tobacco product among adolescents — some 2.1 million middle and high school students were e-cigarette users in 2017 — far surpassing traditional combustible cigarettes. Vaping has gotten much more popular among teenagers in the past few years. Teens often vape because vapes come in fun flavors, have sleek…
It’s an ominous phrase that is top of mind for many school district officials: the “education funding cliff.” This refers to the imminent end of billions of dollars in federal COVID relief money that schools have been relying on during the pandemic. “The feds pushed a lot of money into the K-12 system,” said Lori Taylor, an education finance researcher at Texas A&M University. “Now the districts are being weaned off of that funding —…
Kids around the country are still suffering academically from the pandemic, but more than three years after schools shut down, it’s hard to understand exactly how much ground students have lost and which children now need the most attention. Some new reports offer some insights. All three were produced by for-profit companies that sell assessments to schools. Unlike annual state tests, these interim assessments are administered at least twice a year and help track student…
Schools across the U.S. will soon be able to order free rapid COVID tests from the federal government. The administration’s initiative will make available millions of tests for school districts as they enter the winter months — a time when COVID activity is expected to peak. Already, emergency department visits and wastewater data indicate that cases are climbing in the U.S. Schools can begin ordering tests in early December, the administration said. While there have…
At first, the provenance of the math problems was a mystery. The chalky, pastel words, numbers and symbols appeared on sidewalks near a small park in San Diego not long after the COVID-19 shutdown began. Families taking walks paused to ponder the patterns. They discussed possible solutions. They took photos to share with others. Within a few days, teacher Traci Jackson, who lives a few blocks away, started receiving messages from friends and neighbors. “Is…
This article on climate change is a repost from KQED. Are you a kid — or do you know a kid — who is learning about climate change? It can be hard to know where to start. So we made a guide about how it’s changing the planet and how to deal with the big feelings you might have when you hear about it. Click here to print a paper version of this comic at home or…
A distinct post-pandemic pattern is emerging across the nation’s schools: test scores and attendance are down, yet more students are earning high school diplomas. A new report from Washington, D.C., suggests bleak futures for many of these high school graduates, given the declining rate of college attendance and completion. The numbers are stark in a March 2023 report by the D.C. Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization. Almost half the students in the district –…
Sidhi Dhanda is a 17-year-old junior at Hopkinton High School in Massachusetts who wrote the following piece to mark the fifth annual Student Press Freedom Day. The event is meant to call attention to the fact that student journalism faces barriers to reporting on key issues. Only 16 states have laws that protect the First Amendment rights of student journalists and that mitigate the effects of the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hazelwood School…
