The post Feeling Lucky at 13 appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

Low Pay and Morale

Often cited causes of the teacher shortage are low pay and morale. Salaries for teachers often fall short of their education and experience. Forbes reports, “Research shows that public K–12 teachers are paid 20% less than the average college-educated person working in a non-teaching sector, despite working 52 hours during a typical school week. It comes as no surprise, then, that they are the most burnt-out professionals, with as many as 53% of teachers reporting feeling burnt out every or almost every day. Over the past decade, teacher job satisfaction has fallen from 39% (down from a historic norm of 50-60%) to just 12%. And more than 36,000 teacher vacancies went unfilled this past school year, with nearly a third of current teachers thinking about leaving.”  Many educators struggle to make ends meet, leading to dissatisfaction and burnout. According to Forbes, “More than half of all American teachers work outside of their full-time teaching job, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, with 17% working outside education, including driving Uber, gardening, retail, and, yes, waitressing.”

Political and Parental Pressure

Sign up for our updates to stay informed of issues like this that impact our children, educators, and public schools.

The post Teacher Appreciation Week: Why they need more than just our thanks appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

The SSAC has representatives from all district high schools. These student leaders meet monthly to discuss topics important to the superintendent and his staff. By actively participating in these meetings, students gain insights into programs, policies, and initiatives that shape their educational experience.

For the March meetings, students chose to focus on mental health. This decision aligns with local and national data, which highlight the growing concern around youth mental health in the Tampa Bay region and beyond. During these discussions, SSAC members shared their perspectives and concerns related to mental health.

Key Insights from SSAC Student Leaders

1. SSAC members expressed concern not only for their peers’ mental health but also for the well-being of educators. They wanted to know how the district was addressing the needs of adults working in school buildings. Recognizing that educators play a crucial role in students’ lives, the students emphasized the importance of supporting both students and staff.
2. Students often turn to their peers before seeking help from adults. Therefore, the student leaders stressed the need to ensure that every student knows how to navigate available support services. By promoting awareness and accessibility, they aim to create a supportive environment where students can seek help without hesitation.
3. The SSAC students highlighted an essential point: Supportive services are valuable only if students know about them. To address this, they offered suggestions on how to effectively communicate information about available services. Their goal is to ensure that no student suffers unnecessarily due to lack of awareness.

These student leaders’ concerns coincide with survey results released this month by Morning Consult and McGraw Hill. The global survey found that, in the U.S., 76% PreK-12 teachers said managing students’ behaviors and mental health needs was their biggest challenge. Struggling to keep students engaged was the second-largest challenge for U.S. teachers. Pre-K-12 educators from most of the global regions profiled in the research said student mental health needs was one of their top two challenges.

The Alliance firmly believes that student voice is a critical element in addressing the unique challenges faced by the generation of students affected by the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As we move into the 2024-2025 school year, we remain committed to supporting the SSAC in Hillsborough County. By empowering students to actively participate in shaping their educational journey, we contribute to a more responsive and student-centered school system.

If you would like more information on how to elevate student voice in your school district, reach out to us at info@all4schools.org to learn more.

The post School leaders and students partner for success appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

What Is the Science of Reading?

The science of reading represents a collection of research and evidence from various disciplines, including education, linguistics, cognitive psychology, special education, and neuroscience. It examines the essential cognitive processes involved in competent reading and describes how reading skills develop in both typical and atypical readers.

The science of reading is NOT a specific program or a specific teaching strategy. It is not a product that can be purchased, nor is it simply phonics-based instruction. Critics of the science of reading tout ‘balanced literacy’– read more on that approach in a recent article in The Week.

Evidence-Based Guidance for Teaching

The science of reading philosophy on what matters in early literacy instruction include:

1. Phonological Awareness: Teach students to recognize and manipulate sounds within words. Start with syllables and progress to individual phonemes. Explicitly connect phonemes to letters for effective word decoding.
2. Phonics and Word Recognition: Explicitly and systematically teach letter sounds and sound-spelling patterns. Practices that involve reading and writing words in isolation and within context are most effective.
3. Fluency: Provide frequent opportunities for oral reading from connected text (sentences, paragraphs, passages). Focus on both automatic word recognition and expressive fluency while keeping comprehension central.
4. Vocabulary and Oral Language Comprehension: Engage students in high-quality, language-rich interactions. Explore academic and inferential language during read-alouds. “Build recognition of shared morphemes (e.g., root words, affixes) across oral and written language.”
5. Text Comprehension: Even before students read independently, expose them to rich texts through read-alouds and scaffolded reading experiences.

The science of reading isn’t a single approach; it’s a robust body of evidence drawn from diverse fields. It informs curriculum design, pedagogy, and instructional practices. Its proponents feel that by embracing evidence-based strategies, educators can empower students to become confident and proficient readers.

The study of reading is evolving as new evidence emerges. Research institutions like the Florida Center for Reading Research https://fcrr.org/ at Florida State University continue to study the field and provide educators and families with resources like their series “Supporting your child’s reading at home”.

See these stories for additional stories on the science of reading and balanced literacy:

• https://theweek.com/education/science-of-reading-battle
• https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/11/the-reading-wars/376990/
• https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/

Sign up for our updates to stay informed of issues impacting our children, educators, and public schools.

The post What is the Science of Reading? appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

The post The Current Funding Cliff: Impacts on School Budgets and Students appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

1. ESSER Funds and Fiscal Realities

The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, a lifeline during the pandemic, faced a cliffhanger. These federal dollars had bolstered schools, but their expiration loomed large. The budgets for both PreK-12 and higher education institutions were under the microscope. As the clock ticked, districts grappled with the impending funding gap, risking teacher layoffs and program cuts.

2. Deregulation and High Stakes Testing

Last year’s expansion of school choice had a ripple effect. In 2024, lawmakers doubled down on deregulation, aiming to free public schools from policies that districts viewed as cumbersome. While some hailed this as a step toward flexibility, others felt like the legislature did not go far enough. Popular proposals that would have ended the harsh consequences of high stakes testing failed in negotiations between the House and the Senate.

3. Social Media Regulations for Minors

In an era of tweets and TikToks, social media regulations became a hot topic. The legislature grappled with safeguarding minors online. Lawmakers attempted to balance free speech and protecting students. The resulting policy does not target specific platforms and applies to platforms “where at least 10 percent of daily active users are children younger than 16 who use it for two hours or more a day; that uses “addictive” features, such as infinite scrolling; and that uses algorithms that analyze user data to handpick content for users.”

Chronic Abseenteeism and the Future of Education

Despite committee hearings and public statements from legislative leaders, the chronic absenteeism crisis was never addressed. Districts continue to grapple with a high number of student absences.

Pay attention to the candidates on your ballot for school board, the state House, and the Senate. Be ready to vote on August 20th and November 5th. It will be up to advocates and voters to demand policies that empower students, elevate student voices, engage families and the community, and involve students in the solutions.

Sign up for our updates to stay informed of issues impacting our children, educators, and public schools.

The post The 2024 Florida Legislative Session: What’s in store for schools? appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, “Simon, a Tallahassee Republican, said he had intended only to give schools more flexibility in how they allocate recess minutes, particularly on shortened class days, and not to remove recess. He pulled the section that would have altered the mandate as the bill and its companions (SB 7000, SB 7002) gained bipartisan approval from the Fiscal Policy Committee.

Angela Browning, one of the parents who led the push for recess in 2017, said separately from the meeting that “recess moms” statewide cheered the quick response to their concerns. Simon “has clearly heard us on this issue and we appreciate that authentic daily recess periods will continue for Florida’s elementary school students,” she said.”

In spite of the recess provision, parents and educators applauded the bill which removes many state regulations including drastic changes to the current testing policies. However, former Gov. Jeb Bush and his education foundation have criticized the bill. “Bush wrote a column opposing Simon’s call to stop using state tests to determine whether students get promoted from third grade and graduate from high school. Both are key pieces of the accountability plan that Bush steered into law more than 20 years ago.

Simon said “nothing could be further from the truth” than suggestions the bill sought to lower standards. He said removing the third grade retention requirement would encourage teachers to focus on children’s reading needs earlier. Deleting the graduation test requirements would allow juniors and seniors to take courses other than reading remediation, he said.

“Let’s stop dancing behind the facade that (universities and employers) are looking at these 10th grade tests,” Simon said. The time has come, he argued, to “fix the system.”

These proposals have been the priority of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples. Her priority bills deal with the penalties for class size violations, teacher contracts, and when students can take the General Educational Development.

“School board members and superintendents from across the state applauded the attempt to strip away restrictions that have prevented districts from being innovative as families have been offered a growing number of education options, including charter schools and private school vouchers.

Still a wild card in the debate is the Florida House, where one committee has had preliminary conversations about deregulation but has not released any bills.”

Click here to send a quick thank you to Sen. Simon and committee members for listening to parents and advocates. Tell them you support their efforts to remove harsh penalties tied to state testing. We make it easy to advocate so use our tool to send your message with two clicks.

The post Advocates save recess, applaud changes to state testing appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

The U.S. Department of Defense operates 160 schools worldwide, offering an education for more than 69,000 children of active-duty military and Department of Defense civilian families.

In 2022, scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, show Defense Department schools outperformed schools in all 50 states in reading and math for fourth and eighth-grade students. However, they outpace the rest of the country in many areas.

A closer look at the rankings

According to the New York Times, “Their schools had the highest outcomes in the country for Black and Hispanic students, whose eighth-grade reading scores  outpaced national averages for white students.

Eighth graders whose parents only graduated from high school — suggesting lower family incomes, on average — performed as well in reading as students nationally whose parents were college graduates.”

These schools re-opened relatively quickly during the pandemic but their results are not limited to pandemic learning losses in other states.

“While the achievement of U.S. students overall has stagnated over the last decade, the military’s schools have made gains on the national test since 2013. And even as the country’s lowest-performing students — in the bottom 25th percentile — have slipped further behind, the Defense Department’s lowest-performing students have improved in fourth-grade math and eighth-grade reading.” 

Black and Hispanic students still lag behind their white peers but not at the rates of other states. The Achievement Gap has narrowed in DoD schools.

How do they do it?

An analysis by We Are Teachers outlines six main things Department of Defense schools do differently.

1. Families have access to housing and healthcare. The military provides housing and healthcare and at least one family member has full-time job even though a third of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Students’ basic needs have been met before they walk through the school doors.
2. Teachers are paid more. The Pentagon estimates they spend about $25,000 per pupil, far above many states and in line with the highest performing states. From the New York Times, “Competitive salaries- scaled to education and experience levels- help retain teachers at a time when many are leaving the profession.
3. Schools are fully funded. In addition to teacher salaries, the Department of Defense school budget provides necessary supplies that other school districts rely on teachers and families to provide.
4. Schools are more integrated. Defense Department schools are 42 percent white, 24 percent Hispanic, 10 percent Black, 6 percent Asian, and 15 percent multiracial. From the TImes, “Nationally, school-district boundaries are often drawn along lines of class and race, creating stark divides in resources. In 2021, nearly 40 percent of Black and Hispanic public school students attended a high-poverty school — a rate three to five times that of Asian and white students.”
5. Schools have a strong, central structure. “Logistical planning, including a predictable budget, “isn’t very sexy,” but it is one key to success, said Thomas M. Brady, the director of Defense Department schools since 2014.” Since the administration of the schools comes from a central command, the education is less political.
6. Schools have a common curriculum. Recently, the DoD revamped its curriculum similar to the ill-fated Common Core effort. From We Are Teachers, “…They rolled it out in carefully organized stages over several years, including teacher training and global coordination to ensure every school is aligned. That way, if a parent of kindergarteners…. in Fort Knox is reassigned to a post in Belgium, the child(ren) will pick right back up on their learning at Brussels American School.” They acknowledged that the loss of teacher autonomy in the classroom might be considered a drawback but noted that teachers receive “detailed feedback and support from administrators and coaches, plus dedicated time” to plan lessons with their team.

The New York Times article notes that the overall goal of the Department of Defense’s school system is to raise the floor for all students instead of lowering the bar. “If the Department of Defense schools were a state, we would all be traveling there to figure out what’s going on,” said Martin West, an education professor at Harvard who serves on the national exam’s governing board.”

The post The top performing school system in the nation may surprise you appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

“Despite decades of intense focus, many schools strug­gle to teach all stu­dents to read. In the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2022 KIDS COUNT^® Data Book, researchers found that 81% of fourth-graders in low-income fam­i­lies scored below pro­fi­cient in read­ing. These stu­dents, the data show, were about one-and-a-half times more like­ly to fall short of read­ing pro­fi­cien­cy when com­pared to their more afflu­ent peers.

Both pover­ty and race exac­er­bate this prob­lem: For Black and Lati­no stu­dents, the com­bined effect of pover­ty and poor third-grade read­ing skills makes their high school dropout rate eight times greater than aver­age. Even pro­fi­cient third graders who have lived in pover­ty grad­u­ate from high school at about the same rate as sub­par read­ers who have nev­er been poor.

Par­ents can exert a pow­er­ful influ­ence on a child’s lit­er­a­cy devel­op­ment, read­ing abil­i­ties and atti­tudes around lit­er­a­cy — and this influ­ence starts at an ear­ly age, the research con­sis­tent­ly shows.

Yet, from 2015 to 2016, a large share of kids were still miss­ing out on reg­u­lar sto­ry time. Over 40% of all young chil­dren, ages 5 or under, had a fam­i­ly mem­ber read to them less than four days a week, accord­ing to researchers. Nar­row the view to Amer­i­can Indi­an, Lati­no and Asian and Pacif­ic Islander kids, and the share of chil­dren miss­ing out on reg­u­lar read­ing ses­sions jumps even high­er — to 50%.

For many par­ents, help­ing their kids to learn to read can be intim­i­dat­ing. Young children’s lit­er­a­cy skills encom­pass many aspects, among them:

• knowl­edge of the alphabet;
• aware­ness of the sounds that let­ters make;
• abil­i­ty to con­nect sounds with let­ters; and
• vocab­u­lary.

Ear­ly lit­er­a­cy skills do not emerge spon­ta­neous­ly — they require time and prac­tice.

How can par­ents sup­port lit­er­a­cy devel­op­ment and help to set their child up for future achieve­ment? Luck­i­ly there are many proven ways for par­ents to sup­port read­ing at home.

ADVICE FOR PAR­ENTS OF EAR­LY OR EMERG­ING READERS

Here are a few tips to help ear­ly readers:

• READ EVERY DAY

Find a time to read with your child every day. Even a brief dai­ly com­mit­ment can con­vey that read­ing is an impor­tant pri­or­i­ty for you.

• MAKE A SPACE FOR READING

Cre­ate a com­fort­able, con­sis­tent place in your home where you can read togeth­er, enjoy books and chat about them. You might even make it a place where food and drink are wel­come — these sig­nal that read­ing can be a social activity.

• MAKE READ­ING SILLY

Don’t be afraid to get sil­ly. Read­ing should be fun. Meet your child where he or she is, and don’t insist on ​“seri­ous” or ​“clas­sic” books. Sil­ly books, comics, ani­mé or oth­er art-dri­ven books are a good way to get many chil­dren inter­est­ed in read­ing. If pos­si­ble, act out or sing the words of sto­ries or find oth­er ways to enjoy books.

• VIS­IT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY

Plan trips to the library. Get­ting your child a library card can get them excit­ed about books. Don’t wor­ry about read­ing every book — library trips should be fun. At first, these vis­its may sim­ply con­sist of spend­ing time wan­der­ing the rows of books and meet­ing librarians.

• LIBRAR­I­ANS ARE RESOURCES

Ask librar­i­ans which books are appro­pri­ate for your child and which books kids are excit­ed about.

• SEEK OUT ADAPTATIONS

Read books that are being adapt­ed into movies, and com­pare one type of media to the other.

• ENCOUR­AGE WRITING

Encour­age your child to write thank-you notes, let­ters, jour­nal entries and sto­ries about their dai­ly life and expe­ri­ences. If your child is uncom­fort­able writ­ing, sug­gest that he or she cre­ate a com­ic strip.

• BUILD LIT­ER­A­CY WITH OTH­ER ACTIVITIES 

Enjoy puz­zles, mazes, cross­words and oth­er games, which enable your child to build lit­er­a­cy skills while hav­ing fun.

• PART­NER WITH TEACHERS

Work with teach­ers to under­stand their approach to lit­er­a­cy and ask how you can help at home. Find ways to extend school lit­er­a­cy lessons when you’re home or out with your child.

• LEAD BY EXAMPLE

Show your child that you love books, read­ing and writ­ing — and that you par­take in these activ­i­ties every day.”

The post 10 ways families can support reading at home appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.

A recent Washington Post story begins, “Jennifer Petersen keeps 73 school books she detests in her basement.” Jennifer Petersen has challenged 71 books in her Virginia school district and has earned the title “serial filer” from the Post. 35 of the books she challenged have been removed from shelves with others voluntarily pulled by the superintendent.

From the Tampa Bay Times, “The topics came up again and again in hundreds of book complaints received by Florida school districts over the last year. Indoctrination. Pedophilia. The LGBTQ+ agenda. Those who submitted the complaints say the books in question can harm children, and they want them removed from school libraries.

But while their movement has grabbed headlines, it may not be widespread. Most of Florida’s 67 school districts didn’t log a single formal complaint about a book. That’s based on a Tampa Bay Times analysis, the most comprehensive review of book complaints across the state.

Of the roughly 1,100 complaints recorded in Florida since July 2022, more than 700 came from two counties — Escambia in the western Panhandle and Clay near Jacksonville. Together the two districts make up less than 3% of the state’s total public school enrollment.

About 600 of the complaints came from two people — a Clay County dad and an Escambia County high school teacher.”

Jennifer Petersen and the two Floridians are not anomalies according to a study by the Washington Post. “School book challenges reached historic highs in America in 2021 and 2022, according to the American Library Association. And just a handful of people are driving those records. A Washington Post analysis of thousands of challenges nationwide found that 60 percent of all challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from 11 adults, each of whom objected to dozens — sometimes close to 100 — of books in their districts.”

“A stated wish to shield children from sexual content is the main factor animating attempts to remove LGBTQ books, The Post found. The second most common reason cited for pulling LGBTQ texts was an explicit desire to prevent children from reading about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary and queer lives.”

A Maine story highlights this common theme where at least 22 challenges with primarily LGBTQ+ themes were filed and escalated to superintendents and school boards in 2022 and 2023.

The post National increase in book challenges caused by vocal few appeared first on Alliance for Public Schools.