Innehållsförteckning för The Education Edition från The Goodnewspaper

I think many of us had that one teacher who made a huge difference in our lives. They taught their subject with passion and energy, they chose to share themselves with their students to help forge a connection, and they held you to high standards while also helping you achieve those standards in a way that was unique to how your brain worked. For me it was my 7th grade english teacher, Mr. Johnson. I can imagine a name of a teacher, coach, or mentor came to mind for you relatively quickly, too. I feel incredibly privileged to have had the education I had growing up. First of all, I grew up in a country where access to education was essentially a given. My schools had adequate funding, great leadership…

As a response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with the help of additional Congressional funding, issued waivers that temporarily provided schools the means to feed all students — regardless of their parents’ income levels. According to TIME, Republicans and Democrats alike championed these waivers, schools embraced increased reimbursement rates, and billions of meals were provided. Now two years deep into the pandemic, though, the waivers will soon expire. But two states are keeping children fed. California was the first state to permanently adopt free school meals for all K-12 students. In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law to increase the state’s meal imbursement budget, offering breakfast and lunch to all students, according to the School Nutrition Association (SNA). Similarly, Maine Governor Janet…

According to World Bank, about 5,500 girls drop out of school per year in Tanzania due to pregnancy. Under a policy that dates back to 1961, Tanzanian young women were even expelled from school in the event of a pregnancy, but new president Samia Suluhu Hassan has acted quickly to change the tide. Secondary school drop-outs in Tanzania are now welcome back to re-enroll in school within two years of giving birth or are offered the opportunity to resume studies in alternative colleges down the road. This includes young women who leave school due to pregnancy, as well as other students who missed school for any reason. This shift has been partly due to a $500 million World Bank project launched in 2020 that aims to broaden access to education.…

GOOD Learn more about the societal and cultural barriers that keep girls out of schools. Watch “Girl Rising,” a documentary that follows nine girls and their pursuit to overcome these limitations. (Netflix) BETTER Donate to organizations like The Malala Fund (malala.org), IGNITE Worldwide (igniteworldwide.org), or local nonprofits funding programs and scholarships focused on providing girls with free, safe, quality education. BEST Empower girls within your community through one-on-one mentorship! National organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America can be a great start: bbbs.org/get-involved…

Choosing the right school is already daunting. However, for those new to the United States, who have limited to no English proficiency, or in some cases, may have gone years without formal schooling, the process can feel incredibly discouraging. Chalkbeat New York reported that English Language Learners (ELLs) often don’t receive enough support in school, making navigating and understanding classwork challenging. New York City immigration advocates point to the city dropout rate as a critical in dicator of this problem: there is a 16% dropout rate for ELLs last school year, compared with 5% of all students. The good news is that with the help of diligent advocates such as those a part of Education Collaborative, NYC education officials formally announced their plans to expand the number of transfer high…

America’s history is a brutal one to confront. Slavery, genocide, colonialism, internment camps, atomic bombs, and countless other violent, unjust stories plague the tapestry of American life. It's hard to process, heartbreaking to discuss, and complicated to find our own narratives in such a callous, confusing timeline. But, in order to create a nation that uplifts and works for its people, we must reconcile with the past. This is where we find Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT is a graduate-level academic framework and is essentially never taught at the K-12 level. It explores how institutions perpetuate racism and dives into the foundational history of the United States and how slavery, colonialism, and genocide impact the systems and functions of the country to this day. Despite CRT being a college-level pedagogy,…

In America, teachers spend an average of $500 a year on classroom supplies with their own money, according to the National Education Association. If you think that number is staggering, in total, American teachers spend $1.6 billion on materials that their schools do not budget for each year. Simultaneously, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 43% of U.S. children live in families that struggle to pay for basic expenses — including school supplies that help them learn and function every day. And it’s not just about fancy backpacks or colorful pens. In fact, research from the University of Nevada has found that access to classroom supplies was a major predictor of improvement in children’s self control and behavior during their time at school. While the obvious solution…

While students have had to face unprecedented challenges within the last few years — including transitioning to full-time virtual learning, anxiety around gun violence in America, and navigating a complex education system — many of us have overlooked a core group of people who have also been deeply impacted: educators. Many educators across the U.S. have been expected to do all of the above while also getting their students “back on track,” working through massive teacher shortages, a heated culture war in the classroom, and a teen mental health crisis — to name a few. According to a national poll by the EdWeek Research Center, 60% of teachers are finding their jobs frequently or always stressful, compromising their physical health, sleep, and ability to enjoy free time — with only…

After a rural school district in Batesville, Arkansas installed solar panels at their schools, they turned a $250,000 annual budget deficit into a $1.8 million surplus — enough to give every teacher a raise of up to $15,000, CBS News reports. Out of the more than 7,332 schools across the country that are using solar power - according to Generation 180, a clean energy nonprofit — Batesville School District seems to be the only one that has turned its savings into paychecks. After conducting an energy audit, superintendent Michael Hester was shocked to discover that his district could save at least $2.4 million over a span of 20 years if the district opted for clean-energy alternatives like solar power. The school district transformed an unused field into a solar energy…

GOOD Learn more about childhood hunger in America. Listen to “Rethinking Hunger,” a podcast from the New Mexico Out of School Time Network, which dicusses the fight for a better food system. nmost.org/podcast BETTER Donate to organizations that are working to provide all U.S. students with free food! The School Nutrition Association (schoolnutrition.org) and No Kid Hungry (nokidhungry.org) are great places for your dollars to go. BEST Do your part to end the systemic oppression that makes food inaccessible. Whether that means calling your representatives, working with your school board, or educating your community about meal programs, we need you!…

Move over, “Parks & Rec;” it's about time there was a TV show that helped lighten the load for teachers. “Abbott Elementary” is ABC’s newest workplace comedy, written by and starring Quinta Brunson (who was recently nominated for a historic seven Emmy Awards). It's all about the hilarious (and sometimes heartbreaking) highs and lows of life as a public school teacher in America. The show takes place in an underfunded, predominantly Black Philadelphia public school. “Abbott Elementary,” has only run for one season but quickly became a hit, quadrupling ratings for the network. Call us old-school, but that’s an A+ in our book. The show has tackled topics like teacher retention (the National Education Association reports that 55% of American teachers have thought about leaving the field this year alone),…

When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, it effectively barred girls from attending school. Empathizing with their pain, obstacles, and anxiety, teacher Angela Ghayour decided to take matters into her own hands by building an online school that offered an alternative learning experience amid this crisis. “During this time, I was always thinking of establishing a sustainable educational institution without socio-political preconditions for attending, where Afghan girls could learn without stress or fear,” Ghayour wrote in an article for Assembly, a Malala Fund publication. This kind of treatment was unfortunately all too familiar for Ghayour, who in the early 90s fled to Iran with her family due to an Afghan civil war. Because of the family’s temporary visa status, she was unable to receive formal education for five years. More…

Imagine coming to America as a young refugee and experiencing a rapid cultural change, going to school where no one speaks the same language as you. Trying to create a new home in a safe place, you feel confused, isolated, and defeated. In Aurora, Colorado, the Village Institute hopes to create a new experience. By investing the power of refugee women and their families, the Village Institute is a holistic live-learn-work center where refugee and immigrant families have access to housing, learning, and mental health services. As part of the organization, The Little Village School for Young Children provides free childcare and education. Teachers in the school are often refugee women who have been given the opportunity to complete early childhood education classes and earn child development associate credentials, all…

GOOD Learn more about policies, scholarship opportunities, and legal tools available to immigrant families. Informed Immigrant has a helpful in-depth guide for educators to turn to: informedimmigrant.com/guides/educators BETTER Incorporate diversity and trauma-sensitive resources in class curriculum. The English Learners Success Forum offers free, high-quality resources for K-12 English Language Learners. (elsuccessforum.org) BEST Advocate for expanded programs in your own school board and community. Colorín Colorado (colorincolorado.org) has a free printable guide (“Serving English Learners: Laws, Policies, and Regulations”) to start.…

Education for American Democracy (EAD) is a nonprofit working to strengthen history and civic learning and to ensure that those learning opportunities are delivered equitably throughout the country. Made collaboratively with over 300 teachers, scholars, students, and leaders from a variety of political backgrounds, The Roadmap to Education for American Democracy is a curriculum framework for history and civics for learners in various age groups. Offer the Roadmap up as a solution to school boards, teach it to your own children, and remind lawmakers that people from all backgrounds support inclusive and critical thinking in the classroom.…

DREAM ON Forty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court case Plyler v. Doe ruled that all undocumented children have a constitutional right to receive a free public K-12 education. As a result, this case opened doors for students — regardless of their citizenship or national origin — to obtain their rightful access to education. Though immigration in the U.S. is a controversial issue, undocumented minors — who have no say in their childhood immigration status — deserve to be set up for success. Many have to bear the burden of deportation, are offered limited work opportunities, and when it comes time to apply for higher education, are excluded from qualifying for federal student loans — even if they’re in financial need and their parents pay taxes. Then came the Deferred…

Chances are, if you’ve been a student in the last decade, you’ve turned to a specific YouTube channel to help you study anything from biological polymers to political economies: Crash Course. The channel, created by renowned internet duo John and Hank Green, has been active for over 10 years and has amassed over 1.6 billion views, sharing free and fast-paced videos for any learner or teacher to use. The goal of the platform is to “transform the traditional textbook model,” and do so in a way that engages learners beyond the goal of just passing a test. Crash Course is 100% free to 13.5 million subscribers (and anyone else on the internet who wants to learn). However, keeping learning free is a tough job. Enter: Crash Course Coin. And, no,…

It’s no secret that the high price tag on higher education keeps Americans from going to school — or keeps them from financial freedom in adulthood. According to NerdWallet, about 13% of people in the United States carry student loan debt — that’s about 43 million Americans. As much as it would be a relief to have a sweeping overhaul of the education system or impactful federal loan forgiveness (here’s hoping!), we’re not there yet. College Promise (CP) is a non-partisan nonprofit dedicated to improving college affordability and student loan reduction by funding the first two years of students’ education. The work of CP— often amplified by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden — has been a catalyst for a number of state-level laws. In March of 2022, New Mexico Governor…

GOOD Learn more about student debt in America. The Debt Collective has a zine filled with first-person stories, essays, and resources about student, carceral, housing, and medical debt in the U.S. issuu.com/thedebtcollective BETTER If you have the privilege of financial freedom, redistribute your dollars to uplift borrowers. We love the Student Debt Crisis Center (studentdebtcrisis.org) or the Shared Harvest Fund (sharedharvestfund.org). BEST Call and email lawmakers who have the power to forgive student debt, sign petitions, attend protests, and if you can, strike your student debt. The Debt Collective has a number of resources to help you! debtcollective.org…

A Tokyo medical school was ordered by a district court to compensate 13 female applicants after finding that the school intentionally made entrance exams more difficult for women than men. The ruling was a rare victory for women who are systematically kept out of classrooms. According to Vice, Juntendo University in Tokyo denied discriminating against women. Instead, the university claimed it raised the bar for female applicants “because they were more mature than men of the same age and better at ‘communicating.'” This, they cited, gave women an unfair advantage over their male counterparts. (Hold on, it gets better.) The institution went onto argue that it turned women away due to a lack of space in female dormitories since all first-year students are required to live in residence halls. The…

It’s safe to assume most teachers aren’t in their particular career field for the money. Whether they simply love kids, want to make a difference in their communities, or dream of a more equitable future, teachers come to school with a passion for educating — and leave with a paycheck that does not even come close to reflecting their efforts. In fact, teachers are being stretched thinner than ever before. Between daily lessons, standardized tests, administrative concerns, relationship-building with students and parents, navigating widespread public health and safety concerns, and more, they have reached a breaking point. This year, the National Education Association (NEA) released findings from a survey that shows that 55% of teachers say they plan to leave the profession sooner than they planned. And there is no…

With every “unprecedented” challenge America faces, we must remember that there is an unprecedented amount of hope, resilience, and energy waiting in the wings. And often, that momentum, activism, and people power is built by student activists. According to the National Education Association, student activism is on the rise. As movements for gun safety, fair and ethical labor practices, climate action, bodily autonomy, voting rights, and racial justice rear their (rightfully) outraged heads, students are putting down the pencils in favor of real-life learning experiences. And curriculum aside, they are demanding a world worthy of their inheritance. Student activism is not a new or trendy avenue for organizing. Black, Indigenous, and students of color have been organizing and protesting as part of educational institutions throughout American history, especially during the…