In a global economy, Mass. lags in teaching foreign languages

Across Alabama, districts are using summer school breaks as a chance to bridge learning gaps for elementary school students who struggled to adjust to remote schooling or didn’t get as much face time with teachers during the pandemic. In Madison, English-language learning students were able to participate in a summer program to practice their language skills while incorporating field trips and fun activities, like cooking.

Schools in the Richardson Independent School District of Texas are updating the methods and measurements they've used to identify gifted students. One way is by testing all second and sixth graders in the district, which helps diminish implicit bias coming from teachers who may discriminate against certain students. Students' scores are also being judged differently by comparing them against others from similar backgrounds, from within their own school, and nationally.

The Cherry Creek School district is using apprenticeships to create a more racially diverse pipeline of K-12 educators in Colorado. High school juniors and seniors are paid to participate in the apprenticeship, and are able to earn college credit as well. This is one of the ways the district is working on having its workforce reflect its student bodies more accurately. Currently 85% of teachers are white, and half of its student body is kids of color. Now in its second year, the program has grown from an initial cohort of 12 youth apprentices to 26,

Back On Track Syria is a tutoring initiative in Berlin helping Arabic-speaking students keep up with school subjects by offering help in their native language. The students in the program are often refugees and migrants integrating into a new country and a new educational system and language, often times after not being in school for months or years. The lessons range from small groups to individualized instruction in subjects like math, physics, reading, German, and even English.

When immigrant children come to America, they are faced with culture shock, language barriers, and a system of education different from where their original country. Houston’s Las Americas Newcomer School is designed to ease the adjustment of immigrant and refugee children as they enter the American educational system. Las Americas offers competitive wages for teachers, teaching in several different languages, and preparation for the SAT as the school has the highest rate of minority participation.

The Twilight Education Club is a non-profit working to break down the barriers – transportation, child care and cost – that typically prevent the economically disadvantaged from accessing social services such as language classes. While the Twilight program is specifically geared toward the needs of the parents - getting better jobs and securing greater stability - the long-term focus remains on creating future opportunities for their children.

Bangladesh schools had very low attendance because children were kept home to work and conditions were unsafe for girls, ethnic minorities, and those with disabilities. BRAC, one of the world's largest and most comprehensive NGOs, has built new schools addressing all the reasons, at home and school, that were preventing children from attending.

A teacher in San Diego took matters into her own hands when she couldn't find a social justice curriculum tailored to students with disabilities. That’s partly why she created what she calls the “Social Justice League,” a group of students at her school who meet weekly by Zoom and discuss a variety of issues, such as Native American land, gender privilege, the representation of disabilities in the media and systemic racism.

At the onset of the pandemic some families resorted to learning pods to keep their kids on track, but this option was not accessible for lower income families. In Brooklyn, schools, churches, and community groups are trying to level the field by offering students of all incomes the in-person, small-group option as remote learning leaves many behind.

For many college students, the cost of a textbook is often cost-prohibitive and instructors are looking at ways to address that. At Reedley College in California, instructors are curating their own teaching content through the use of open educational resources, which "are openly licensed content, freely available online to be reused, adapted, redistributed, or changed without permission from the creator." This "Zero textbook cost course" approach has been used in 23 colleges in the state, and showed increases in students' grades.