Two weeks notice: Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools in North Carolina voted on Oct. 28 to close schools on Nov. 12, for a “day of kindness, community and connection.” Five days notice: On the evening of Wednesday, Nov. 17, Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan announced they would be closed the following Monday and Tuesday, extending Thanksgiving break for a full week. The district cited rising COVID-19 cases and staff shortages. Three and even two days notice: On Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 9 and 10, three different districts in Washington state — in Seattle, Bellevue and Kent — announced schools would be closed […]
Anya Kamenetz
38 posts
The vaccination of children ages 5 to 11 against COVID-19 is well under way: The White House announced this week that an estimated 10 percent of children in that age group have received their first shot. California has become the first state to announce that it will add this vaccine to its list of the shots required for all school children. And a handful of districts in 14 states are making similar moves, starting with mandates for student-athletes to participate in sports. Because almost every child attends school, vaccine mandates have been uniquely effective against diseases like smallpox, polio, pertussis, and […]
The first time kids had to get a vaccine to go to school was more than 200 years ago. The disease? Smallpox. For the past four decades, all 50 U.S. states have required that parents, if they want to enroll their children in any school, public or private, must vaccinate them against contagious diseases like polio and measles. The reason is simple: High rates of vaccination dramatically cut deaths and have all but eliminated some diseases. But as long as there have been vaccines, there have been people who oppose them, formerly known as “anti-vaccinationists.” They have brought many legal challenges […]
The Poway Unified School District, in San Diego County, Calif., was planning a pretty typical school board meeting in September. They were hearing reports from their student representatives and honoring their teachers and other staff members of the year. Because of the pandemic, the general public has been asked to join and comment via livestream. That hasn’t stopped protesters from showing up in person. “In the August meeting, they were pounding on the windows,” said board member Darshana Patel. “So little by little it’s been escalating — they’ve been antsy and escalating their hostility and aggression toward the board.” In several […]
SDI Productions/Getty Images SDI Productions/Getty Images Natalie Saldana would love to put her 1.5-year-old daughter in a quality child care program while she works and goes to school, but the $700 monthly price tag makes it impossible. “Seven-hundred dollars is almost my rent,” Saldana said. Saldana, 22, is a full-time student, single mom and health insurance agent in South Carolina. She’s one of the many parents struggling to find child care, even as many child care centers have reopened. According to a new poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, […]
Bryan has only spent one uninterrupted week in fifth grade since classes started in early August. His charter school has sent him home five separate times to quarantine because of exposure to COVID-19, though he’s never tested positive. He’s missed more than 30 days of school, and he’s struggling to keep up with his lessons. Bryan is the second of five siblings. His family emigrated from Mexico, and his parents run a restaurant in Nashville. NPR isn’t using his family’s last name to protect his privacy as a minor. Bryan’s is an extreme case, but quarantines are keeping many children home […]
On Tuesday, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before a Senate panel. The hearing’s focus was advertised as “protecting kids online.” “I believe that Facebook’s products harm children,” she said in her opening statement, saying that the documents she published proved that Facebook’s “profit optimizing machine is generating self-harm and self-hate — especially for vulnerable groups, like teenage girls.” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone noted on Twitter during the hearing that Haugen “did not work on child safety or Instagram or research these issues and has no direct knowledge of the topic from her work at Facebook.” Researchers have worked for decades to […]
Parents drop their children off for the first day of school in Novi, Mich., on Tuesday. Emily Elconin/Bloomberg/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Emily Elconin/Bloomberg/Getty Images Parents drop their children off for the first day of school in Novi, Mich., on Tuesday. Emily Elconin/Bloomberg/Getty Images On Thursday, President Biden announced a series of actions aimed at getting control of the surging pandemic. Alongside new vaccine requirements for private businesses, he announced new steps to encourage K-12 schools to mandate masks for all, require vaccines for employees and step up testing for COVID-19. Coronavirus safety measures like these have become political flashpoints, […]
A Spanish version of Hear My Voice/Escucha Mi Voz reads, “We entered the United States by crossing the Rio Grande on a raft that started to sink. I got wet up to my waist.” (Excerpted from Hear My Voice/Escucha mi voz. Foreword by Michael Garcia Bochenek; Compiled by Warren Binford; Workman Publishing. Copyright 2021.) Adriana Campos/Workman Publishing hide caption toggle caption Adriana Campos/Workman Publishing A Spanish version of Hear My Voice/Escucha Mi Voz reads, “We entered the United States by crossing the Rio Grande on a raft that started to sink. I got wet up to my waist.” (Excerpted from Hear […]
The U.S. Education Department has released the first in a series of school surveys intended to provide a national view of learning during the pandemic. It reveals that the percentage of students who are still attending school virtually may be higher than previously understood. As of January and early February of this year, 44% of elementary students and 48% of middle school students in the survey remained fully remote. And the survey found large differences by race: 69% of Asian, 58% of Black and 57% of Hispanic fourth graders were learning entirely remotely, while just 27% of White students were. Conversely, […]
Alexis Jones, a freshman at Cornell University. Elissa Nadworny/NPR hide caption toggle caption Elissa Nadworny/NPR Alexis Jones, a freshman at Cornell University. Elissa Nadworny/NPR Almost exactly one year ago, the pandemic caused a cascade of school and university closures, sending 9 out of 10 students home as the coronavirus raced through the United States and the rest of the world. By Labor Day, 62% of U.S. students were still learning virtually, according to the organization Burbio. That number dropped significantly during the fall and rose in the winter as COVID-19 surged. And today, just under 1 in 4 public school students […]
One year after the coronavirus pandemic shuttered classrooms around the country and the world, U.S. parents are guardedly optimistic about the academic and social development of their children, an NPR/Ipsos poll finds. But 62% of parents say their child’s education has been disrupted. And, more than 4 out of 5 would like to see schools provide targeted extra services to help their kids catch up. This includes just over half of parents who support the idea of summer school. The nation has lacked solid national data on precisely where classrooms are open to students. In our survey, half of parents said […]
When you think of the history of Black education in the United States, you might think of Brown vs. Board of Education and the fight to integrate public schools. But there’s a parallel history too, of Black people pooling their resources to educate and empower themselves independently. Enslaved people learned to read and write whenever and wherever they could, often in secret and against the law. “In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems,” like convincing white children to help him, wrote Frederick Douglass. “I had no regular teacher.” After the Civil War, says educator Kaya Henderson, Black people started “freedmen’s […]
An aerial view of a Freeport, N.Y., school bus parking lot in April 2020. Al Bello/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Al Bello/Getty Images An aerial view of a Freeport, N.Y., school bus parking lot in April 2020. Al Bello/Getty Images In November, I reported for NPR on a scientific paper that estimated millions of years of life could be lost due to prolonged school closures in the U.S. — far more, in fact, than might be lost by keeping schools open. The paper has since been corrected and critiqued. The central question it tried to answer remains. The paper’s author, […]
Nathan Grebil (right) takes the temperature of fourth-grade student Hyla during a health screening at Bel Aire Elementary School in Tiburon, Calif., in October. Lea Suzuki/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Lea Suzuki/Getty Images Nathan Grebil (right) takes the temperature of fourth-grade student Hyla during a health screening at Bel Aire Elementary School in Tiburon, Calif., in October. Lea Suzuki/Getty Images President Biden has called reopening schools a “national emergency” and said that he wants to see most K-12 schools in the United States open during his first 100 days in office, which would be between now and April. On Thursday […]
A fourth-grader eats breakfast at Mary L. Fonseca Elementary School in Fall River, Mass. Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images A fourth-grader eats breakfast at Mary L. Fonseca Elementary School in Fall River, Mass. Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images When schools shut down in the spring, that raised immediate worries about the nearly 30 million children who depend on school food. Those worries were essentially borne out, with researchers reporting a large rise in child hunger. According to a report from Feeding America, 1 in 4 households […]
President-elect Joe Biden delivered remarks in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday. Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty hide caption toggle caption Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty President-elect Joe Biden delivered remarks in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday. Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty On Monday, President-elect Joe Biden affirmed his support for erasing some student debt “immediately.” Student debt forgiveness was a major campaign plank of some of his more progressive rivals for the Democratic nomination but it remains controversial even among some Democrats. In answer to a question at a Monday press conference, Biden repeated his support for a provision passed […]
President-elect Joe Biden stands on stage with his wife, Jill Biden, on Saturday in Wilmington, Del. Carolyn Kaster/AP hide caption toggle caption Carolyn Kaster/AP President-elect Joe Biden stands on stage with his wife, Jill Biden, on Saturday in Wilmington, Del. Carolyn Kaster/AP With the eyes of the country upon him, Joe Biden shouted out education during his speech on Saturday in Wilmington, Del: “For American educators, this is a great day for you all. You’re going to have one of your own in the White House.” Of course, the president-elect was talking about his wife, Jill Biden, an English professor at […]
Students at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Fla., wait in line to have their temperatures checked on Aug. 31. According to an updated tracker, Florida is one of three states that will offer full-time, in-person learning to more than 75% of students by Election Day. Octavio Jones/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Octavio Jones/Getty Images Students at Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Fla., wait in line to have their temperatures checked on Aug. 31. According to an updated tracker, Florida is one of three states that will offer full-time, in-person learning to more than 75% of students by Election Day. Octavio […]
Students attend the first day of school in the small town of Labastida, Spain, on Sept. 8. A recent study found no link between coronavirus spikes and school reopenings in the country. Alvaro Barrientos/AP hide caption toggle caption Alvaro Barrientos/AP Students attend the first day of school in the small town of Labastida, Spain, on Sept. 8. A recent study found no link between coronavirus spikes and school reopenings in the country. Alvaro Barrientos/AP Despite widespread concerns, two new international studies show no consistent relationship between in-person K-12 schooling open and the spread of coronavirus. And a third study from the […]
Orange County, Fla., has 18,000 missing students. The Miami-Dade County public schools have 16,000 fewer than last year. Los Angeles Unified — the nation’s second-largest school system — is down nearly 11,000. Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina has 5,000 missing. Utah, Virginia, and Washington are reporting declines statewide. Comprehensive national data aren’t available yet, but reporting by NPR and our member stations, along with media reports from around the country, shows enrollment declines in dozens of school districts across 20 states. Large and small, rich and poor, urban and rural — in most of these districts the decline is a departure from […]
From shiny red pencils reading “My Attendance Rocks!” to countless plaques and ribbons and trophies and certificates and gold stars: For as long as anyone can remember, taking attendance — and rewarding kids for simply showing up — is a time-honored school ritual. For good reason: Just being there, day in, day out, happens to be one of the most important factors that determines a child’s success in school. And average daily head count forms the basis of school funding decisions at the federal, state and local level. Yet now, like so many other aspects of education, that simple measure — […]
A new national effort asks K-12 schools to voluntarily — and anonymously — report their confirmed and suspected coronavirus cases, along with the safety strategies they’re using. Opening schools safely in person is seen as key to restarting the economy and recovering the learning loss that has fallen most heavily on marginalized groups of students. There are also many fears associated with reopening — of severe illness among vulnerable staff and family members, and of stoking broader outbreaks, as seems to have happened where colleges have reopened in person. The COVID-19 School Response Dashboard, which NPR is reporting on exclusively, was […]
Patricia Stamper, with her 5-year-old son, works with children who have cognitive and physical disabilities at an elementary school in Washington, D.C. Jared Soares for NPR hide caption toggle caption Jared Soares for NPR Patricia Stamper, with her 5-year-old son, works with children who have cognitive and physical disabilities at an elementary school in Washington, D.C. Jared Soares for NPR I catch Patricia Stamper with a Zoom meeting going in the background and a child at her knee asking for attention. Stamper works as a teacher’s assistant for special education students in the Washington, D.C., public schools. These days, her virtual […]
There’s a LOT of education news these days. Here’s an overview of the stories from this week that you might have missed, plus some valuable links we’ve gleaned from around the web. First let’s turn to the world of higher education. As we reported last week, college towns are driving coronavirus outbreaks nationwide. There are over 26,000 reported cases on campuses, according to The New York Times. Iowa State University canceled its first football game because of alarming rates of coronavirus on campus; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign told students to stop all non-essential in-person contact after a spike — […]
New York City schools Chancellor Richard Carranza speaks at New Bridges Elementary School in Brooklyn on Aug. 19. Carranza has said that without an infusion of cash, thousands of city education jobs could be lost. Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images New York City schools Chancellor Richard Carranza speaks at New Bridges Elementary School in Brooklyn on Aug. 19. Carranza has said that without an infusion of cash, thousands of city education jobs could be lost. Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images On the morning of Sunday, March 15, I started getting texts from […]
Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, said at a press conference Wednesday that schools were not ready to reopen. Richard Drew/AP hide caption toggle caption Richard Drew/AP Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, said at a press conference Wednesday that schools were not ready to reopen. Richard Drew/AP New York City, the largest school district in the country with 1.1 million students, is also the only big-city school district planning to open its doors to students — albeit on a hybrid schedule with virtual learning — on […]
SDI Productions/Getty Images SDI Productions/Getty Images Kirk Gallegos is a single father of four. He works construction in Barstow, Calif. Prudence Carter is a single mother of one. She’s the dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. Both of them share the same problem with tens of millions of other parents around the country: Their public schools aren’t operating full time in-person this fall. And the rest of the child care system, which had been stretched even before the pandemic, is itself under pressure. The child care sector consists for the most part of small […]
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House on Thursday, July 23, 2020. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption toggle caption Evan Vucci/AP President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House on Thursday, July 23, 2020. Evan Vucci/AP Public schools should delay reopening in coronavirus hotspots, but should open fully if they want to receive tens of billions of dollars in new federal aid, President Trump said in a White House briefing. At the news conference on Thursday, Trump talked in more detail than he has in the past about school reopening. He also announced […]
The American Academy of Pediatrics once again plunged into the growing debate over school reopening with a strong new statement Friday, making clear that while in-person school provides crucial benefits to children, “Public health agencies must make recommendations based on evidence, not politics.” The statement also said that “science and community circumstances must guide decision-making.” The AAP is changing tone from the guidance it issued just over two weeks ago. Then, the organization made a national splash by recommending that education leaders and policymakers “should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.” The Trump administration this week […]
School buses sit idle in a Seattle bus yard. On July 2, Seattle Public Schools announced it is planning to resume some in-person learning in the new school year. Karen Ducey/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Karen Ducey/Getty Images School buses sit idle in a Seattle bus yard. On July 2, Seattle Public Schools announced it is planning to resume some in-person learning in the new school year. Karen Ducey/Getty Images Jeanne Norris is a teacher, the wife of a teacher and the mother of an 8-year-old in St. Louis. She’d love to send her son back to school in August. […]
Kristina Washington, special education staff member at Desert Heights Preparatory Academy, walks past desks and chairs at the closed Glendale, Ariz., school in early June. Ross D. Franklin/AP hide caption toggle caption Ross D. Franklin/AP Kristina Washington, special education staff member at Desert Heights Preparatory Academy, walks past desks and chairs at the closed Glendale, Ariz., school in early June. Ross D. Franklin/AP The nation’s pediatricians have come out with a strong statement in favor of bringing children back to the classroom this fall, wherever and whenever they can do so safely. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidance “strongly advocates that […]
To help with social distancing, children at Valley of the Sun YMCA sites in Arizona were taught to make “airplane arms” when standing in line. Courtesy of Valley of the Sun YMCA hide caption toggle caption Courtesy of Valley of the Sun YMCA To help with social distancing, children at Valley of the Sun YMCA sites in Arizona were taught to make “airplane arms” when standing in line. Courtesy of Valley of the Sun YMCA When Arizona schools shut down in mid-March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Tatiana Laimit, a nurse in Phoenix, knew she needed a backup plan. […]
At least two-thirds of American high school students attend a school with a police officer, according to the Urban Institute, and that proportion is higher for students of color. Now, the national uprising for racial justice has led to a push to remove police officers from security positions inside schools. School systems in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Denver, Portland, Ore., and two districts in the Bay Area have all moved in recent weeks to suspend or phase out ties with police. Jesse Hagopian, a teacher and activist in Seattle, says removing police from schools has been a key demand of the Black Lives […]
There is no one answer for what the coming school year will look like, but it won’t resemble the fall of 2019. Wherever classrooms are open, there will likely be some form of social distancing and other hygiene measures in place that challenge traditional teaching and learning. Future outbreaks will make for unpredictable waves of closures. Virtual learning will continue. And all this will happen amid a historic funding crunch. American education has long been full of innovators practicing alternatives to the mainstream. When the giant, uncontrolled experiment of the pandemic rolled across the country, certain approaches proved their mettle in […]
For Ananay Arora, this spring has brought good news and bad news. The good news: The Arizona State University sophomore snagged one of the most prestigious internships in the country. He’ll be working with the software engineering team at Apple. The bad news: Instead of rubbing elbows with Tim Cook at the company’s futuristic ring-shaped headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Arora will be working remotely from his off-campus apartment in Tempe, Ariz.. He’s an international student from New Delhi, which means he can’t go home to his family right now, and pandemic restrictions mean he can’t relocate to California. “They’re shipping a […]
Nightmares. Tantrums. Regressions. Grief. Violent outbursts. Exaggerated fear of strangers. Even suicidal thoughts. In response to a call on social media, parents across the country shared with NPR that the mental health of their young children appears to be suffering as the weeks of lockdown drag on. Most U.S. states have canceled in-person classes for the rest of the academic year. This week in Senate testimony, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sounded a cautionary note on the prospect of reopening school buildings nationwide, even in the fall. He pointed to the emergence […]
No field trips. No game rooms. No teddy bears. These are some of the CDC’s guidelines for reopening schools, childcare centers and day camps safely in places where coronavirus cases are on the decline. The guidance, which also covers restaurants, churches and other public places, was obtained by The Associated Press, which reports that the White House tried to keep it from coming to light. The New York Times quoted Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, as being concerned that the guidelines were “overly prescriptive.” The CDC does not have authority to enforce its guidance, which is intended for public information […]