#CoveringCOVID19, a daily update from The Grade to help education journalists cover the COVID-19 crisis.
THE TOP FIVE
Five great education stories about how schools are responding to the COVID-19 crisis:
Miami-Dade Schools See Lower Virtual Attendance In Low-Income, Immigrant Communities – WRLN (above)
Chicago Public Schools to order more computers and Chromebooks, but internet remains a challenge – Chalkbeat Chicago [See also WBEZ]
DeVos excludes DACA recipients, foreign students from grants – Associated Press [See also NYT]
Some school districts have launched ‘no harm’ grading policies. Will NYC follow? – Chalkbeat NY [See also this scathing Seattle Times commentary]
When it comes to online learning, Massachusetts and Rhode Island take wildly divergent paths – Boston Globe (below)
“COMPARE AND CONTRAST” IS YOUR FRIEND
Today’s Boston Globe story (above) comparing Rhode Island’s state-led push to provide a robust version of remote learning with Massachusetts’ “do your own thing” message to districts is a great reminder of how useful it can be for journalists to compare contrasting strategies or results. It’s been only lightly used in recent weeks. The only previous example I can think of was a CT Mirror story comparing two different districts’ approaches to online learning.
While state authority over districts varies widely, the issue of state-level leadership is an important one in education, just as it is in other aspects of the COVID crisis. A recent opinion piece in The 74 features the argument that states have given districts too much leeway when it comes to education.
There’s more than enough information out there at this point to compare state- and district-level responses to the COVID crisis, and even to compare some of their early results. How are LA, NYC, Chicago, and Houston doing — overall and relatively? How about NOLA, Baltimore, DCPS, and San Diego? Or states, or even individual schools?
Of course, it helps if the contrasts are clear, and even better if one state, district, or school is doing something surprising, innovative, or unusual.
The day’s best new education news stories are shared out every morning via @thegrade_. Then between 4 and 5 PM Eastern, the daily #coveringCOVID19 roundup comes out. You can find it here.
ICYMI: Yesterday’s #coveringCOVID19 roundup featured five ways to make COVID coverage more inclusive.
TIDBITS
Let’s not assume that the kids are all home. Not all of their families want to or can afford for them to hunker down. Not many have parents who can afford to pay them not to work. The Idaho Education New has a fascinating story (above) about what’s going on there: Children take to the fields following school closures. The Boston Globe featured a high school student who was working in a nursing home. At very least, they’re probably helping take care of younger siblings than they were in the past.
Six weeks into the crisis, and three weeks into remote learning, do you write an update on how remote learning is going or do you look ahead to how things might play out over the summer or even in the fall? My preference would be an update on how the current efforts are playing out, but the NYT Metro team (and many others) have decided it’s time to look into the future.
Is the federal appellate decision declaring that Detroit students have a right to an adequate education the first non-COVID story that’s going to break through the coverage of school shutdowns, missed proms, and remote learning? It’s possible.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alexander Russo
Alexander Russo is founder and editor of The Grade, an award-winning effort to help improve media coverage of education issues. He’s also a Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship winner and a book author. You can reach him at @alexanderrusso.
Visit their website at: https://the-grade.org/
