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The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released national and state-level high school Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rates (ACGR) for the 2018-19 school year.
The national ACGR for all students was 85.8%, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from the 2017-18 school year. The ACGR for all racial and ethnic subgroups, economically disadvantaged students, and English learners also increased from the previous year, and students with disabilities showed the highest year over year increase with a 1.1 point improvement.
In honor of Music in Our Schools Month, the Secretary shared some songs that keep him energized.
“Let’s make this abundantly clear: trans right are human rights,” the Secretary emphasized in a tweet.
IES’s What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) released a new practice guide that focuses on implementing career pathways at community colleges associated with improving postsecondary student learning and labor market outcomes.
A first-ever report from the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center examines 67 plots to conduct a school attack that were averted in the U.S. from 2006 to 2018, identifying a number of qualitative findings and commonalities across the incidents.
The Department of Labor announced last month the availability of $87.5 million for grants to expand Registered Apprenticeships. Up to $40 million may be awarded to states that implement diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and demonstrate a commitment to adopt, expand, and promote them.
On March 24, the Department hosted the National Safe School Reopening Summit, gathering key education stakeholders. The summit was one in a series of steps the Department is taking to provide support and resources to K-12 schools as they work to reopen and equitably address the academic, social, and emotional needs of students most impacted by the pandemic.
On the same day, the Department announced the release of two-thirds of the American Rescue Plan’s (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to support their efforts to get students back in the classroom safely for in-person learning. The remaining one-third of ARP ESSER funding will be released after states submit their reopening plans (Department letter to Chief State School Officers and allocation table). Evidence-based components of high-quality summer and enrichment programming, described how ARP funds can be used to support their design and implementation, and detailed how these opportunities may be available this summer and beyond by building capacity, including the role of philanthropy and community-based partners.
At the President’s request, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), via the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is extending access to the special enrollment period (SEP) for individuals and families for marketplace coverage in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency through August 15 — providing consumers more time to take advantage of savings through the ARP.
“Lessons from the Field” webinar series, key topics across early childhood, K-12 education, and postsecondary education.
“Safely Reopening and Sustaining In-Person Instruction,” provided a brief overview of how to implement mitigation strategies and featured a panel of practitioners from several districts sharing lessons learned on preparing for and returning to in-person learning. (Note: A reminder that the agency is seeking information submitted to be************************@**.gov for its Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices Clearinghouse.)
NOTE
The Department issued the first data from the 2021 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) School Survey, finding that three-quarters (76%) of U.S. public schools with fourth- and eighth-grade students held instruction in classrooms, either through full-time, in-person learning or a hybrid model. Rates of full-time, in-person learning varied by race and ethnicity: more than half of Black, Hispanic, and Asian fourth-graders learned in a fully remote environment, while nearly half of white students learned in-person full-time. Survey results are available on an interactive dashboard where one can explore data for participating states and districts, and the dashboard will be updated every month until the end of the 2020-21 school year.
The latest science on physical distancing between students in classrooms. It now recommends that, with universal masking, students should maintain a distance of at least three feet in classroom settings. In turn, the Department is updating the first volume of its K-12 COVID-19 Handbook.
The Department issued guidance regarding the use of funds received under the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund grant program. This guidance reflects a change in the agency’s position, which previously only allowed funds received under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, 2021, to be used for costs incurred on or after December 27, 2020, the date of the law’s enactment. Now, institutions may use HEER Fund grants to reimburse themselves for lost revenue and expenses incurred back to March 13, 2020, the start of the COVID-19 national emergency. Moreover, the agency is supplementing this change of interpretation with additional guidance about how grantees may calculate and charge “lost revenue” to HEER Fund grants and releasing additional Frequently Asked Questions for Public and Private Non-profit Institution Grants and Proprietary Institution Grant Funds for Students.