e-news: December 5, 2023
In This Edition:
1.November 30th School Board Recap
2. What We're Reading
3. Open Policies: Make Your Voice Heard
4.Happening Soon
November 30, 2023 School Board Meeting Recap
Chair Diaz-Torres kicked off the School Board meeting, indicating that Dr. DurĂĄn would be participating virtually. She also reminded the community that APS is still accepting applications for the School Board advisory councils for this school year.
Key takeaways include:
ALL In Tutoring plan has been submitted to VDOE to provide tutoring for eligible elementary and middle school students in Reading or Math before, during and after school. APS invites community members to apply to be tutors.
Public comment included 15 speakers. Two teachers spoke on teacher concerns, one teacher spoke on Secondary English Learner changes, seven speakers spoke on Family Life Education (FLE), four speakers spoke on MPSA/Career Center PIP and one speaker on other items.
Changes to Family Life Education (FLE) PIP: Deleted âTeachers will not, in whole class instruction, demonstrate the use of contraceptives" and added âUnderstand the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by teenagersâ abstaining from sexual activity before marriage.â Documents presented are here and here. The option to use gender-separate small group instruction was also removed.
Dr. DurĂĄn said parents can opt their children out of the course. Supervisor Debbie DeFranco clarified that there is no way to opt out of specific instructional strategies (i.e. demonstrating contraceptives), that opting out of the class is the only option.
Presentation on Middle and High School Program of Studies, with programs for 24-25 school year passing unanimously. Changes include additional intensified classes in 6th grade and changes to EL instructional pathways.
Discussion regarding scheduling changes that are required to provide intensified classes in middle school.
Read the full recap here.
What Weâre Listening To and Reading
Schools Need to Ban Cell Phones (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-10-23/learning-loss-why-schools-should-ban-cell-phones#xj4y7vzkg
Evidence about the negative effects of mobile devices on learning is overwhelming. Large-scale international assessments have shown that anything beyond limited use of technology in the classroom harms academic performance. A 14-country study cited in a UN report this year found that merely being in proximity to smartphones disrupted learning for all ages, from preschool to college, with poorly performing students suffering the most.âŠItâs by now incontrovertible that, however essential to modern life, smartphones have no place in the classroom.
Parents Donât Know When Their Kids Have Fallen Behind. Report Cards Could Be the Problem (EdWeek)
https://archive.ph/90e9v
Parents are more likely to engage in their childrenâs academics if they know that theyâre struggling. But most parents gauge their childrenâs performance based on report cards, which often paint a misleading picture of how students are doing and lull parents into a false sense of securityâŠThe surveyâs findings dovetail with a growing body of research showing that, increasingly, studentsâ grades arenât providing an accurate picture of how theyâre doing academically. While studentsâ achievement has slid to historic lows since the start of the pandemic, a number of studies have shown that their classroom grades have inched up.
â9 Thoughts on the Advanced Placement Takedown in the New York Times (Fordham)
https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/9-thoughts-advanced-placement-takedown-times
The New York Times published a hard-hitting 2,300-word expose [on AP classes]...One of the key questions [not addressed in the article] is whether kids who take AP courses but fail the AP exams still benefit from the experienceâŠ.And thatâs because of the conventional wisdomâinformed by decent researchâthat taking challenging coursework benefits kids even if they struggle with the materialâŠI canât help but wonder whether IBâs more subjective system [partially determined by projects and presentations (with a higher pass rate for low income students)] makes it easier to engage in grade inflationâand the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Schools should ban smartphones. Parents should help. (WaPo)
https://archive.ph/AbDV4
Impose an outright ban on bringing cellphones to school, which parents should welcome and support. In educational settings, smartphones have an almost entirely negative impactâŠAnd if thereâs a true need to communicate with home, thereâs always the option of using the school officeâs landline, as students have done for decades.
Am I Anti-Equity? You decide (EdWeek)
https://archive.ph/Hze2S
Iâm deeply concerned that the push for equity has taken us into goofy territory where âpro-equityâ ideologues are doing destructive, inexcusable things⊠My local school system in Arlington, Va., directed teachers not to cover new content for three months in 2020 because of equity⊠For a term that gets used in every mission statement and school district missive, every other research article, and every third education headline, itâs remarkably hard to get a straight answer on what âequityâ actually meansâŠ. [W]henever I raise specific concerns about how equity is being applied, Iâm told that is, of course, problematic but âthatâs not really equity.â...Ultimately, âequityâ is often treated as a magic wordâitâs all the good stuff⊠I think weâre at the point where that term obscures more than it reveals.
Your Neighborhood School Is a National Security Risk (Education Next)
https://www.educationnext.org/your-neighborhood-school-national-security-risk-student-achievement-merit-losing-prospects-era-everybody-wins/
China, fighting hard to erode our global influence, must laugh at stories about American schools eliminating advanced classes, about how teaching algebra is a form of oppression, about how elite colleges market themselves as places where itâs easy to avoid math, and about how the best universities in the world are downplaying objective academic criteria in favor of a vague and subjective calculus of extracurricular experiencesâmany of which only the wealthy can accessâŠ[The US needs to]...[c]ombat the idea that lower standards are an equity winâŠ[and] [o]vercome our fear that competition and stress will hurt young people.
Banning Smartphones at Schools: Research Points to Higher Test Scores, Less Anxiety, More Exercise (The 74 Million) https://www.the74million.org/.../banning-smartphones-at.../
Schools in the United Kingdom will soon ban the use of cell phonesâŠ[A] studyâŠfound that across the large English cities of Birmingham, Leicester, London, and Manchester, dozens of high schools that instituted bans on mobile phones saw significant improvement in scores on high-stakes tests. The increase was especially large for the lowest-performing pupils, who saw a jump in scores more than twice as large as the average student. Overall, the authors argued, the greater effects on these students of banning mobile phones â roughly equivalent to adding an hour to each school week â suggested that their higher-achieving classmates were better able to ignore distractions and focus on their work.
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Feedback Period is Open!
Click here for the open policies the APS School Board will be deliberating and voting on. Please make your voice heard!
Feedback on policies currently being considered by the School Board should be sent to engage@apsva.us or click the link provided.
Happening Soon!
Thursday, December 14, 7 PM: School Board Meeting. Sign up to speak. Syphax. Watch live.
Monday, December 18, 5-7 PM: Open Office Hours with David Priddy. Virtual. Sign up.
Wednesday, December 13, 8 AM: Policy Subcommittee Meeting. Syphax, Suite 260.
Friday, December 15, 8 AM: Audit Committee Meeting. Syphax, Suite 260.
Don't forget! You can subscribe to APS School Calendars here.
