Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/03/2021

• NAIS - Addressing Anti-Blackness and the Trauma of the Past and Present

  • “How does your identity impact your pedagogy?” Group members sat in silence looking around the room for an entry point to start this uncomfortable conversation. I grimaced as I watched my colleagues shift in their seats. As a Black, queer woman from the South and a humanities scholar, I had engaged in deep self-examinations around this issue.
  • Why were they employing euphemisms and talking about racism in the abstract as if it were not here among us? 
  • it became obvious that the colorblind lens helped assuage those who were not people of color of any feeling of discomfort.
  • When we do talk about diversity, school leaders, administrators, faculty, and DEI practitioners often conflate Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA+, and international students as one monolithic group. But this conflation erases the experiences of Black students. The harsh reality is that our independent schools are disproportionately harming our Black students.

• NAIS - The Truth About Making Real Change for Racial Justice

  tags: DEI social justice diversity racial justice

  • To look at ourselves honestly means to ask: Why are our schools here? The raison d’être of independent schools has been, and continues to be, that of advancing the interests of those who already have privilege—to provide a return on investment (ROI) to those who have sufficient disposable income to afford independent school. To put it differently, our main job is to preserve the social status quo or reproduce the elite; this class-bound purpose results in a hierarchical view of the world in which our students are destined for leadership. In our mission statements, the idea that we are creating leaders is almost universal. On their face, these statements provide a binary and hierarchical understanding of society, one in which there are leaders and followers, and we are teaching the leaders.
  • noblesse oblige, a worldview that accepts and perpetuates existing social hierarchies while promoting social good.
  • When we look at our schools’ service programs, the idea of “giving back” is ubiquitous. Yet we fail to discuss or even question how much taking is appropriate.
  • Families send their kids to our schools, and we must prove that we are better than local public or other school options. In other words, we ask the majority of our families to give us financial support so that their kids can get more—not necessarily different—than what their taxes pay for; the “more” is the ROI.
  • Furthermore, this hierarchical worldview permeates our practices—from grading to sports, we promote hierarchies cemented on ability, access, and popularity, among other things. By viewing race problems in our schools in purely cultural terms, we are articulating our hope that we will promote some hierarchies while erasing other hierarchies based on race, gender, and sexual orientation. But as we know, hierarchies intersect and sustain each other.
  • the demand that our teachers get better or different professional development, that we hire and admit more people of color, and that we collectively become culturally competent is a way to deal with the symptoms of racism, not with a system of racism.
  • Why would those who have privilege, and want to keep it by paying for a special pathway for their children, want to give it up? Anyone familiar with the college admission process knows the tensions that emerge around race and class. If our students and families are happy to embrace the language of inclusion, such superficial pretense often evaporates when college admission lists appear. It is then that we see the hard limits of our inclusivity.
      
     The families in our communities are essentially good people who want to share, but they don’t want to be left out.
  • They like the idea of “giving back” but do not want to take less.
  • many of our enrollment challenges derive from the fact that millennial families are looking for meaning and value—not access. We need to stop worrying about providing an illusory ROI and ensure that we help our students develop lives of meaning and purpose; we need to stop worrying exclusively about leadership and prepare them for ethical and active citizenship. It is only when we can talk to our students about the need to take less so that others can have their fair share that we will be able to honestly talk about race.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/01/2021

• Resisting the Pushback Against the Work for Racial Equity and Justice  — Teaching While White

  • whenever there’s a concerted effort to address racism in the nation, forces of resistance rise up.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 12/31/2020

• The Dos and Dont's of Talking to Kids of Color About White Supremacy | Colorlines

  • Do ground your children in a worldview that includes their spirituality, family traditions, heritage, cultural values and
  • self-respect.
  • Don’t perpetuate the myth that we live in a colorblind society. Everyone is not treated the same, and race and color do matter and America is a not meritocracy where they will succeed if they just try hard enough. Even if you believed this in the past, those ideas lack credibility today. If you need to do an about face, say so and explain why.
  • And research shows that by the time a Black boy turns 10, White adults often perceive him as being up to four years older than he is and less innocent than other children. A study released in June revealed that Black girls ages 5 through 14 are viewed as more sexually mature and less innocent than their White peers.
  • Do role-play to help them practice what to say during stressful encounters.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 12/21/2020

• Listen and Connect: How Parents Can Support Teens’ Mental Health Right Now - MindShift

  • “It sounds really simple, but the thing that teenagers are craving the most is connection and listening because this is hard for everyone,” she said.

     

  • “Children take their cues first from us, always. We are their people.” But adults do not need to be paragons of positivity. We don’t have to pretend it’s easy, says Hurley. Instead, we can talk about how we are feeling with teens “so that they know that, right now, feeling like you're on a roller coaster every day is normal.”
  • “Whether it is taking that daily walk or doing an online yoga class or some sort of exercise to get the endorphins going, we have to think about our own coping strategies,” says Hurley. She also strongly recommends meditation apps because mindfulness is a proven way to reduce the acute stress response. “When we use it, it works.”

  • Check-In Without Interviewing

     

  • Hurley said the most common response she’s hearing from kids right now is that they are lonely. They miss their friends, and they miss “a teacher leaning over their desk to point something out on their paper. Teachers have this magical way of connecting with kids in small ways and they can't get that over Zoom, no matter how hard they try.”

  • Parents often report that their teens are not coming to them for support. But they are, Hurley says.

     

    “They're just doing it in a way that you don't like. When they're venting or sniping at you over little things – there it is!

  • Even as the ‘warm fuzzies’ are not often reciprocated, teens still need them, still need to know they are loved unconditionally.”

• Should Schools Be Giving So Many Failing Grades This Year?

  • “The question is not, how can we get these kids who are close to failing to not fail. It’s, what is not working for those kids?” MacIndoe said. “How can we do a better job for them?”

• NAIS - NAIS Research: Budget Considerations for the 2021-2022 School Year

  tags: budget tuition

  • Data from the NAIS Snapshot surveys of varying groups of independent school leaders reveal that 61% of schools have increased their expense budgets for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, while 58% are projecting a loss for the same time period.
  • 49% of schools experienced a decrease in enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year, with 33% seeing a decrease of greater than 5%. At the same time, 47% of schools reduced their fundraising goals from the previous year.[2] Tuition revenue will only help fill the gap at some schools: 49% increased their tuition, while 41% kept it the same and just 5% of schools reduced it.[3] However, 70% do expect to raise tuition in 2021-2022.[4]
  • Sixty-seven percent of schools have already implemented revenue-increasing strategies, and 76% plan to do the same in 2021-2022. Schools most commonly plan to rely on summer programs, with 67% already offering them and 79% likely to for the next summer.
  • 74% of schools increased their technology budgets.[6] Thirty-six percent expect IT expenses to increase further in 2021-2022.[7] Other schools appear to be angling to attract and retain staff despite the cost: 43% increased salaries (compared to 21% who cut them), and 74% hired additional staff (though data from a different sample of NAIS members found that 30% had implemented a hiring freeze, while 19% instituted layoffs).[8] Additionally, 38% of schools have increased their general financial aid budgets, with 31% increasing it by more than 5%. Fifty-four percent have established a separate emergency grant fund for students needing additional assistance.
  • Despite the need for additional teacher training in online and hybrid learning, professional development budgets have frequently been cut to make up for additional spending elsewhere, with 41% of the schools decreasing the amount allocated (and 26% decreasing it by more than 16%).[10] Thirty-nine percent of schools are likely to continue to reduce professional development in 2021-2022, and 22% may freeze it altogether.
  • adding new degree programs was a common and successful tactic for boosting enrollment during the Great Recession and one that was also popular with faculty.
  • A parallel tactic for independent schools in markets that have seen increased demand for their programs, whether in-person or online, would be to add a part-time or afterschool component for parents worried about learning loss for their public school students.
  • Determining what motivates your parents can help your school focus its offerings and rein in expenses, helping you focus on what matters most to families.
  • Fifty-five percent of independent schools lost teachers this year due to COVID-19 concerns, and 8% lost 5% or more of their teaching staff, according to NAIS Snapshot surveys.[21] All of this has led to a nationwide shortage in both dedicated substitutes and, more broadly, people who can just watch over a classroom when the teacher isn’t physically present.
  • The goal of financial sustainability seems to have been superseded by the reality of teaching during a global pandemic
  • To address the substitute shortage in South Dakota, for example, one public school district partnered with a local university’s college of education. Teaching candidates are able to get the field experience hours required for their degree by substitute teaching in various classrooms.
  • After all, the job market for recent graduates has shrunk dramatically during the pandemic, with unemployment during the third quarter of 2020 particularly high among young people—almost 18% of 18- to 19-year-olds were unemployed as were about 15% of 20- to 24-year-olds.
  • • One-time revenue shortfall (with expected rapid recovery): This scenario is optimistic during the pandemic, but schools that were unable to hold a large revenue-earning event in 2020, such as an auction, community fair, or summer camp, but expect to be able to do so in 2021 can rely on endowment funds for the time being.
     
    • One-time or short-term expenses: Schools may need endowment funds to repair the campus after natural disasters or offer emergency financial aid grants for families facing hardship.
     
    • Short-term expense for long-term savings: Schools that haven’t already done so, or haven’t done so to as full an extent as they would like, can use endowment funds to upgrade technology or PPE infrastructures in order to attract and retain students in the long-term.
  • When making financial decisions, school leaders need to be honest about the challenges affecting their final choice.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 12/02/2020

• You want this party started, right? Here We Go!

  You want this party started, right? Here We Go! #BidenHarris2020 https://t.co/cC1IYm8QaC

  tags: BidenHarris2020

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.