Here are a few of the education stories we’ve bookmarked recently.
What School and District Leaders Get, Want, and Need From Professional Development
Education Week unveils the results of its research center’s nationally representative survey of educators, including more than 450 school and district leaders, about their professional development access, needs, and preferences. Findings within the report include that 50% of principles and 49% of district leaders surveyed said their school district continuously provides formal professional development to principals and assistant principals.
Supporting Students During Uncertain Times
Many disruptions to in-person instruction have left educators and students enduring the challenges of revolving quarantines, varying degrees of masking and distancing, and abrupt pivots to virtual instruction. Edutopia’s chief content officer, Stephen Merrill, makes it clear that this is a problem and that “the need to rebuild the frayed social fabric of our learning communities... should be the paramount concern.” In the article, Merrill offers ideas to address this issue by providing insightful guiding principles for ways educators can best support themselves, as well as their students, during a time of constant change and uncertainty.
School Leaders Take Note: Teacher Care is a Lot More Than Self-Care
As educators everywhere have been struggling with burn out and mental health as result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the quick-fix many point to as ‘self-care’ is actually doing little to help. Author Sean Slade writes a piece for EdSurge exploring how important it is for school leaders to support their by addressing the causes of stress to create a more sound and less stressful environment for the whole school community.
District of the Year: Richland School District Two
A feature on K–12 Dive’s2021 School District of the Year— Columbia, South Carolina’s Richland School District Two, where a focus on innovation and school improvement initiatives help create equity and opportunity for all its students. The district is celebrated for rethinking its grading policies, its focus on magnet programs from special education, and the creation of its Richland Two Institute of Innovation incubator program.
