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In the face of budget cuts, teacher shortages, and pressure to enhance student engagement—and inspired by Major League’s Baseball brand new, transformational pitch clocks—several school districts have recently cut down on inefficiencies and shortened the school day by implemented “teach clocks.” With this system of timers, teachers, students, and staff receive a set number of minutes to complete tasks and finish up those thoughts and lessons. A recent study examines the novel practice.

Schools, it finds, are implementing the clocks in intersecting ways for all three groups. Teachers often revise classroom activities such that pupils, for example, show without telling, dissect tadpoles instead of frogs, and perform songs in 2/2 time rather than 4/4. In most cases, students who violate the timer—perhaps by attempting to think before speaking—lose a point on their most recent assignment. And staff usually lose an hour of pension credit per violation.

The upshot: School days typically end two to three hours earlier.

The researchers also examined the teach clocks’ impact on achievement. The largest statistically significant gains in both math and reading occurred in schools that only implemented the clocks for administrators, followed by places that gave them to all three groups. The researchers hypothesize that shorter staff meetings and less bureaucratic micromanaging gave teachers more time to actually do their jobs.

Though these results are fascinating, several limitations to more expansive teach-clock use remain. Shop teachers, for example, have expressed concern about rising student injury rates, and music teachers complain that the songs sound terrible. Nonetheless, given waning student attention spans and the fact that the weather is getting so nice out, district and school leaders would do well to consider the intervention’s potential.

SOURCE: Sandy Alcántara, Justin Verlander, and Julio Urías, “Limiting Dead Time: Teach Clock Effects in a Generic Suburban District,” Efficiency in Schools Working Paper Series (April 1, 2023).

With inflation high and the prices of so many everyday items heading into the stratosphere, America’s home ec teachers have a new challenge on their plates: teaching students how to cook, clean, and keep house on a budget. Not a Scrooge budget, either. We’re talking Harpagon territory. That’s the philosophy, at least, at Hart Knox Afterschool Services in Hoboken, New Jersey, where a promising course has recently drawn heaps of interest and thousands of students.

“In terms of cleaning, you can forget actual soap,” says lead educator Miele Brookstone. “Those are for nepo babies and sports stars now. Our teachers are rediscovering baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, bottom-shelf booze, and citrus peels—all the software the kids’ll need for most jobs.” Students report that many of the almost-zero-dollar tips are cribbed from Glamour magazine in the halcyon days of 2009: Just blow that dirt away by opening your windows as part of your cleaning routine. Dirty microwave? Boil some water and steam clean it, wiping those grungy surfaces with rags leftover from your old clothes. Gotta wash those rags? Splash out for generic borax in bulk or go with old fashioned baking soda and vinegar. Wool dryer balls are an almost-infinitely reusable alternative to dryer sheets—and can save energy, too.

And indeed, this is all essential information for 2023. Inflation isn’t just for soufflés and quiches anymore. It’s everywhere. America’s kids need to be equipped to survive. Thanks to the good folks at Hart Knox, though, graduates’ pennies will be getting pinched so hard they’ll be screaming.

Nationwide, students continue to struggle socially and emotionally following the pandemic, and from the isolating and detrimental effects of skyrocketing social media use. The situation has been especially hard on teenage girls, according to mountains of research.

Happily, this spring, global superstar Lizzo announced a new SEL release designed for these young women called “Feeling Good and Well.” And folks, the problem may be solved. Here’s a sneak peek from the queen herself:

Come now, girl, come dry your eyes. You know you a star, you can touch the sky. I know that it’s hard, but you have to try. If you need advice, let me simplify...

If you’re shining, everybody’s going to shine. You were born like this, you don’t even have to try. You’re like chardonnay, you get better over time. If they say you aren’t the best, girl, they’re lying.

You do my hair toss, check your nails—baby, how’re you feeling? You’re feeling good and well.

One more time: You do my hair toss, check your nails—baby, how’re you feeling? You’re feeling good and well.

Yeah, you got problems, that’s the human in you. Bling bling, then you solve them, that’s the goddess in you.

Woo, girl, you need to kick off your shoes. Have to take a deep breath, it’s time to focus on you. All the big fights, long nights that you been through: I got bottle of designer seltzer I’ve saving for you.

Boss up and change your life. You can have it all, no sacrifice.

Now that you’re back up in this building: It’s been a minute, tell me how you’re healing. Because you can get into your feelings. How are you feeling? How do you feel right now? Ohhhh, you’ve been so down and under pressure. You’re way too great to be this stressed, yes! Ohhhh, you’re not the girl you were or used to be. Girl, I know you’re better!

Turn up the music, turn down the lights. I got a feeling that you’re going to be all right. OK. All right.

It’s about dang time!

Turn up the music, let’s celebrate. I got a feeling that you’re going to be OK. OK. All right.

It’s about dang time!

Wow... Special. I’m going to spread this far and wide—cuz I love you. More Lizzobangers, please.

In 2014, The Thomas B. Fordham Institute announced that Mike Petrilli would succeed Checker Finn as president of the national education policy think tank. Less than a whirlwind decade later, Petrilli chronicles his journey from the sprightly, dance-loving, fashion-risk-taking forty-something with long, luscious brown locks to the press-cautious, Twitter-weary, shiny-scalped fifty-year-old he is today. In one noteworthy highlight, he blames Finn for goading him into shooting a music video in which he dressed like an insect and danced around, leading to widespread derision in the ed-press tabloids. Eat your heart out Spare. This is HÆIR.

Miguel Cardona will step down after a two-year stint as U.S. Secretary of Education to pursue a leading role in the CBS hit series Ghosts. Cardona will play the ghost of a cheerful carpenter who died of consumption during the Spanish-American war. Executive producer Joe Port sought him for the role. “Playing an invisible character can be a difficult transition for an actor, but Cardona has more than two years of experience doing just that,” said Port. As to his “ghost power,” a running gag in the series that connects the ghosts with the living world in humorous ways, Port said he is torn between stating the obvious and missing the obvious. “Whichever our writers find funniest, that’s what we’ll go with. We know Miguel is talented at both.” Cardona’s Senate confirmation made him the second most famous Miguel Cardona, behind the Gainesville’s restaurateur. Cardona’s Cabinet tenure will be remembered for his several school visits and dozens of emails.

Former volleyball star, struggling landlord, animal charity founder, Horace Mann School–attendee, Baruch graduate, NYU graduate, seasoned Wall Street financier, Disney star, Broadway producer, Brazilian journalist, two-time husband, and assassination target George Santos has announced that he is stepping down from his position as a U.S. representative of New York’s 3rd congressional district. The self-proclaimed “Catch Me if You Can” enthusiast has decided to return to his roots as a high school guidance counselor, where he has inspired countless students to follow their dreams. With his unusually diverse professional background, he is passionate about sharing career advice from his own experiences with young people. No matter what career they aspire to, he has already done it, and likely became an expert in the field. One of Santos’s former students, Elizabeth Holmes, claims, “Mr. Santos taught me everything I know about setting career goals.” During a recent interview about his first career as a guidance counselor, Santos alleged that some of his former advice to students has been made public: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” for example, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world,” and “It takes a village.” Stay tuned on where he lands.

California Governor Gavin Knewsom issued an executive order last Tuesday, blocking Golden State high schools from deploying the College Board’s hot-off-the-presses Advanced Placement course on creationism. “It violates everything we progressives hold dear,” said the much-rumored Democratic presidential aspirant. “It does violence to good science and is just one more example of the College Board’s pandering to extremist groups while seeking to expand market share in certain parts of the country.” Replied Board president David Coalman, “This excellent addition to the AP program’s growing suite of college-level courses for high school students was carefully developed by an expert team of university faculty and secondary educators, creationists all. It responds to mounting demand at both the high school and college levels for high-quality instruction about this vital alternative to conventional cosmology. We are proud that it has already been mandated in the high schools of Florida and Texas, but we’d also be pleased to work with California educators to see if it can be modified to address some of Governor Knewsome’s objections.”

1. Throughout the coverage of Governor DeWine’s visits to elementary schools around the state in recent days, we have been sure to note some demurring (sometimes subtle, sometimes not) on the part of teachers and school administrators with regard to mandating the science of reading in Ohio classrooms. This includes a directly-stated dislike of the proposal to ban three-cueing and other low-quality reading curricula and the less-direct discussion of five year phase-ins of phonics instruction…which always sound like they’re going to take way longer than that to accomplish. And, in case you were wondering, here’s a look at the hymnal from which the state teachers unions and many of their members are singing in this regard. (The74, 3/30/23)
   
   

2. Speaking of teachers unions, the one calling the shots in Cleveland Metropolitan School District has a beef with the way the district has structured community input on new CEO candidates. They say that their members will not get a fair share of input due to the “random assignment” method of building diverse interview panels the district is planning to employ. You will recall that teachers and other district staff members outnumbered parents, students, and community members nearly two-to-one during the earlier phase of the process seeking input on what was required in a new CEO, but those were simply open forums. This, they say, is an “internet reality show” approach. “This final stage will only show how well a candidate can pander to strangers,” the union prez says, “many of whom will have zero idea of what it takes to do the job.” Wowza. (Signal Cleveland, 3/30/23) Speaking of game shows, this event at Toledo City Schools sure feels like one to me. (And one that is more on the level of The Chair than Jeopardy.) I’ll let you read the details of the game yourself, but I will note that the records transfer bill our co-host talks about here is a very good thing, notwithstanding this staged display. In fact, I know the stalling of student record transfers goes both ways and I reckon it’s way worse the other direction than it is here. But there is also another bill or two I could mention circulating through the Statehouse right now that could actually help out these students even more, in a very permanent sort of way. You know the ones I mean, right? As a side note: I fully expect to see more and varied grandstanding stunts like this as school choice—and especially universal vouchers—remains a going concern here in Ohio. (Toledo Blade, 3/30/23)
   
   

3. I’m not sure that the scope of this issue is fully explained here—“I think what was kind of eyebrow raising to me was the scope of the problems and how many children were being affected by the problems in this facility.”—but it sounds like really bad news for lots of students with disabilities and their families without much of a fix in sight. (Spectrum News 1, 3/30/23)
   
   

4. After the foregoing miasma of yuckiness which has beslimed these clips today, I would desperately like to end the week on some good news. This recap of Math Night at Elgin Elementary School will have to do. “All of the games involved either money, time, basic math like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,” said one of the retired teachers/math aides who organized the event. “These are just ways to do math.” Sounds like a fun time and the event drew 400 people. (Marion Star, 3/29/23)

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Good news of the week—brick-and-mortar edition

Utica Shale Academy in Salineville, Ohio, announced this week that it had received a construction grant from the Governor’s Office of Appalachia. School leaders say that much of their expansion project is “shovel ready” and that the money will be put to work very quickly to help build a huge new facility to serve more students. Congratulations! Meanwhile, Menlo Park Academy in Cleveland is celebrating its new Green Infrastructure Grant from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District which will not only make the building and grounds more eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable, but also will create numerous opportunities for students to learn about the technology and how it works. Fantastic!

Good news of the week—virtual edition

This story may not sound at first like good news: Northeast Ohio teenager Eliana Rosario is still experiencing numerous long-Covid symptoms more than two and a half years after first contracting the disease. However, she calls Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA) her “saving grace” through it all. She was able to work flexibly and concentrate on her school work as her illness developed and her treatments changed. And she says that the ability to keep moving forward at this atypical pace kept her from falling behind. OHVA 12th grade principal Megan Daley notes that Eliana is not alone in needing or embracing the flexibility of virtual learning over the last few years. And Eliana sees yet another silver lining to her experiences: “I get to share with people that life happens, but don’t give up because good things can come out of it.” Well said.

Very happy anniversary

Rocketship Schools co-founder Preston Smith spoke to author Richard Whitmire for this piece in The 74, celebrating the 15th anniversary of the high-quality charter operator and reflected on the ups and downs of Rocketship’s development. Their model has always focused on parent empowerment and partnership in education, a bedrock principle that was shaken by Covid disruption. However, Smith says their pandemic pivots kept that partnership firmly in mind, making them even more creative and allowing them to weather the disruptions more smoothly than other schools.

Not all the news can be good

Last week, we noted a charter school announced to open in the Columbus suburb of Westerville—likely the first to locate there. Sadly, the Westerville Planning Commission rejected a conditional use permit for the school proposed to take over empty office space, citing traffic concerns. It is unclear right now what, if any, next steps the school’s operators might pursue, but here’s hoping that city administrators will work with them in good faith to try every possible pathway to make it happen.

The view from Indiana

Two major developments for charter schools in Indiana this week. First up, the House Education Committee made changes to a bill that would effectively “sunset” the state’s law requiring school districts to offer unused buildings to charter schools for $1 in 2025. This compromise would allow several potential sales under the law to conclude before it is eliminated and looks forward to additional changes in state law which would direct facilities funding to charters in the future. Second, the board of Indianapolis Public Schools approved its 2023-24 budget this week, several provisions of which will direct more funding to charter schools partnered with the district. This reflects the enrollment growth in those schools over the last several years as well as the continued increases projected.

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