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As Covid Surges, Filipino Students Begin Second Year Online
Some countries, like Britain, have taken an aggressive approach to keeping schools open, including from late spring into early summer, when the Delta variant surged. While many elementary school students and their teachers did not wear masks, the British government focused instead on other safety measures, such as rapid testing and widespread quarantining. Where schools have been closed for a long time, such as the Philippines, education experts have expressed concerns that the pandemic has created a “lost generation” of students, buffeted by the limits of remote learning and by overstretched parents struggling to serve as surrogate physics and literature teachers. Maritess Talic, 46, a mother of two, said she…
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‘These are the facts’: Black educators silenced from teaching America’s racist past | US education
History teacher Valanna White filed into the auditorium the first week of August for the customary back-to-school all-staff meeting at Walker Valley high school in Cleveland, Tennessee. What she heard shifted her outlook for the coming school year. On 1 July, a new law took effect banning the teaching of critical race theory in Tennessee public schools. White listened intently as a school district official gave a vague overview informing the group that critical race theory was prohibited, though without fully explaining what critical race theory entails. Instead, teachers were told a list of actions – such as discussing racial discrimination – that were forbidden. White left the meeting confused…
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A teacher’s education in Haiti | MIT News
Eli Brooks was only supposed to stay in Haiti for a few weeks. Like many college students, the mechanical engineering senior’s original plans for the summer of 2020 were scrapped due to the pandemic. He had an opportunity to volunteer at Have Faith Haiti Mission and Orphanage in Port-au-Prince for four weeks. As his month in Haiti was coming to a close, Brooks had a change of heart thanks to a persuasive toddler. “People were asking me to stay, and it’s pretty hard to say no to a three-year old saying ‘Mr. Eli, can you stay here and teach me?’” recalls Brooks. He decided to take a leave of absence…
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Biden orders new initiative to investigate Latino education
President Biden is creating a new initiative on Hispanic education as the percentage of Latino students in U.S. public schools continues to grow. The big picture: Latinos make up around 27% of all public school students and about 20% of college students. They are expected to be the majority of U.S. residents by midcentury but now lag behind in graduation rates and student achievement. Driving the news: Biden signed an executive order Monday creating a White House initiative, “Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics,” which will be housed within the U.S. Department of Education. This will focus on breaking down barriers and systemic challenges facing Hispanic students…
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AG said drafting order to bypass education minister on vaccines in schools
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit is preparing an order that will enable the health minister to bypass the education minister and instruct that COVID-19 vaccinations be administered in schools, even during study hours, according to a report on Tuesday. Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton has clashed with other government officials over the administration of the shots in schools to children over 12 years old. She is insisting that immunizations not be given during school hours, a position that would hobble an effective vaccination program in the education system. Israel has regularly performed other vaccine drives within schools. Public health laws empower the health minister to provide health services inside schools, something Horowitz…
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Microcredentials don’t stack up, academics warn
Micro-degrees are “gig credentials for the gig economy”, exacerbating the tenuous existence of struggling workers and turning universities into job coaching services that save companies money on their in-house training, according to two academics. Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moodie have delivered a scathing assessment of an educational trend that is sweeping the world. The University of Toronto researchers say that microcredentials are fractured qualifications that abet the fracturing of formal employment through casualisation, Uber and food delivery apps. Writing in the journal Higher Education, they say microcredentials reframe universities as “an instrument of microeconomic change” to serve market needs. “Their potential to underpin contingent, precarious work is greatest for those who…
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Making education easier for Utah prisoners would make the community safer |Opinion
Alongside a wonderful team, we direct the University of Utah Prison Education project. We provide on-site coursework and programming to incarcerated adults at the Utah State Prison in Draper and work closely with faculty and student volunteers from a diverse range of institutions in our state, including Brigham Young University, Salt Lake Community College, Snow College, Southern Utah University, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, Weber State University, and Westminster College. We are an all-volunteer initiative, and we are currently unable to meet demand. In fact, the unmet need in our state is tremendous. There are over 200 youth incarcerated in 11 detention facilities in Utah and over 13,000 adults…
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