The Weekly Connect 5/30/23

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Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

Schools can help students with end-of-year stress

The Biden Administration is increasing access to school-based mental health services.

As the pandemic wanes, preschools reconnect to families and caregivers

To read more, click on the following links.

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The Weekly Connect 5/22/23

Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

Schools can use social media best practices to promote social connections.

Illinois becomes the first state to pass a law requiring public schools to integrate Asian American history into the curriculum

A grant program in Pennsylvania supports curriculum that boosts disability awareness

To read more, click on the following links.

Continue reading “The Weekly Connect 5/22/23”

The Weekly Connect 5/15/23

Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

Severe weather disrupts special education services.

Pandemic experiment of universal free school meals gains traction in states.

Child care shortages for children with disabilities.

To read more, click on the following links.

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The Weekly Connect 5/8/23

Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

History and civics scores on the NAEP — the nation’s report card — fell to 1990s levels. 

Four-day school weeks gain popularity. 

The Nelsonville, Ohio, school district focuses on students’ mental health

To read more, click on the following links.

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The Weekly Connect 5/1/23

Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

A study finds that school discipline occurs at predictable times, a finding that shows how important it is to monitor discipline practices to avoid inequitable treatment of students. 

Some states want to give students more time to eat lunch to ensure that they get the nutrition they need. 

U.S. Surgeon General calls kids’ declining mental health the “crisis of our time.”

To read more, click on the following links.

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The Weekly Connect 4/24/23

Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

Replacing older school buses improves attendance. 

President Biden signs an executive order to make child care cheaper.

A City Connects school in Dublin, Ireland, uses compelling activities to address absenteeism

To read more, click on the following links.

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The Weekly Connect 4/19/23

Here’s the new edition of The Weekly Connect. Check it out and sign up to have it delivered to your inbox!

Here are some of the things we’ve been reading about this week:

Using a curriculum rich in arts, history, and science led to reading improvements

Title IX athletic rules could be finalized by May.

Ohio plans to boost the graduation rates of special education students.

To read more, click on the following links.

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Promoting equity in Salem

Tackling social inequity is hard work. Last year, Salem Public Schools took on this challenge by forming a partnership with the nonprofit organization Equity Imperative that includes feedback from students.

That partnership led to the Student Voice Project, an effort to amplify students’ concerns and help them take action to address these concerns.

“We’re getting trained as adults to be facilitators,” Joy Richmond-Smith, the City Connects Coordinator at Salem’s Saltonstall School, says. “District staff are being trained about equity and race and how they affect our students, as well as about the negative impact of implicit bias and institutional racism in schools.”

The training for facilitators includes the Youth Participatory Action Research (or YPAR) framework, which encourages, according to YPAR’s website, the creation of “positive youth and community development” based on “social justice principles.” 

“In each middle school and high school,” Richmond-Smith adds, “we organized a student voice group that’s supported by an adult mentor.” And this year the program expanded into Salem’s elementary schools. 

Initially, the focus was on first steps. Richmond-Smith and Jaleesa Tentindo, a school counselor, worked with Saltonstall middle school students to identify “a pressing issue at our school that they want to research and then try to come up with recommendations for our school to implement,” Richmond-Smith says.

“The issue they chose was the lack of consistent and meaningful dialogue about race and racism.”

Continue reading “Promoting equity in Salem”
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