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W hen some teachers in the Long Beach Unified School District hear students say they’re bad at math, they rephrase. You’re not bad, you’re just not understanding it yet. It’s not too difficult, it’s just challenging right now. These educators are helping students develop a growth mindset, a belief that they can improve their skills through effort. A growth mindset is one of four social-emotional learning traits the district — along with others in California — are trying to teach their...

When a Swansea primary school began to teach pupils about their human rights, several children told teachers they did not feel safe at home. Rachael Webb, headmistress of Hafod Primary school, said it led to the involvement of the authorities. "It does make children think about how they should be treated," she said. [For more on this story, go to https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-47031262 ]

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — School security experts gave lawmakers their input on legislation that aims to improve safety on Texas campuses. The legislation, Senate Bill 11 , was authored by State Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood. His district includes Santa Fe, Texas, where a gunman killed 10 people on May 18, 2018. "We say a lot of times that education is the most important thing we do in Texas, but it’s really just right below public safety," Taylor said as he laid out his bill at Tuesday's...

In the wake of high-profile school shootings, many schools over the past decade have invested scarce educational funds into putting more police in schools. School districts have shown a near obsession with “hardening” schools despite federal data revealing that the real crisis of schools isn’t violence, but a broad failure to hire enough support staff to serve students’ mental health needs. Today’s students are experiencing record levels of depression and anxiety and many forms of trauma.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has made a call for universal, high-quality child care a central theme in her campaign to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., introduced legislation this week that proposes cost-sharing between the federal government and states to provide affordable, high-quality child care up to age 13. The idea of good, affordable child care and preschool appeals to many parents of young children, but how...

Hoping for a friendlier response from Gov. Gavin Newsom than she got from Jerry Brown, state Sen. Nancy Skinner is again proposing legislation that would ban out-of-school suspensions in all grades for student behavior deemed “defiant and disruptive” by school authorities. If Skinner’s bill, SB 419 , passes the Legislature, it will mark the third time this decade that a ban on these suspensions — which data show are disproportionately meted out to students of color, LGBT students and those...

Homelessness in early childhood is a known risk factor for children’s health and well-being. Because high-quality early care and education (ECE) programs can buffer some of the negative effects of homelessness on a child’s development , federal ECE programs (such as child care subsidy, Head Start, and early intervention) have begun to prioritize these children for care. Unfortunately, ECE providers in the field often have difficulty identifying families eligible for child care slots that are...

One of the biggest educational trends of the past decade is social-emotional learning. Experts quibble over what these soft skills are exactly but the term generally refers to things like managing emotions, learning to set goals and getting along with others. Programs to boost these skills have proliferated at schools. Some are sold by curriculum publishers and cost many thousands of dollars. Others are free but can still involve hundreds of hours of teacher training. Many of the programs...

C ornel West said we have a history that is “inseparable from though not reducible to victimization.” This is just as essential as it is difficult to keep in mind when white high school dropouts own more wealth than black and Latino college graduates . Black children in America today are constantly being told that they do not belong and they are not enough. The past several years have forced me to reflect on what it means to be not only a black man in this country but a black educator for...

CRI is Proud to Present the 2019 Beyond Paper Tigers Conference Session Descriptions and Presenter Biographies! Join us for the latest information, and strategies to build RESILIENCE! CRI is honored to have expert presenters in their fields to showcase a diverse selection of sessions revolving around the BPT Conference theme, "Building Resilience Across the Life Span." Conference Session Descriptions and Presenter Biographies are now available for review! If you have not purchased conference...

After two teachers’ strikes in as many months in California, it is too soon to tell whether the labor disputes in Oakland and Los Angeles presage a new era of school-based activism. But regardless of what comes next, this year’s strikes had much in common, and yielded valuable lessons and insights for other districts where labor troubles may also be brewing. Both strikes were relatively short, lasting about a week. The timeline was shaped by the troubled finances of both districts that...

For many kids, sitting still all day in school is a big challenge, which is why movement breaks are good practice, whether it's in elementary school or high school. Additionally, learning science shows us that movement activates the brain and improves cognition. "This idea of children sitting for long periods of time, they aren’t naturally wired to do that," said Dr. Pamela Cantor, Founder and Chief Science Advisor of Turnaround for Children in an Edutopia video series on the science of...