When that happens, it’ll be clear which districts are prepared and which aren’t. It’ll also be obvious which districts put equity and student needs at the center of tough decisions.

I know, because as the former chief financial officer of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), I grappled with many of these issues after the 2008 global financial crisis. I understand the difficulty of making tough decisions about staff and eliminating programs while prioritizing student success, particularly for students of color and those experiencing poverty.

Preparing for the coming fiscal cliff isn’t the responsibility of chief financial officers alone, since most districts will simultaneously spend the ESSER money even as they look for budget cuts. Because of that, this pending perfect storm will require a partnership of district leaders, school administrators, teachers and families—a community partnership built on trust, respect and transparency.

Facing the financial reckoning

Here are five things districts should consider doing to keep students and their successes at the center of discussions about budget reductions:

1. Inventory district-funded programs, then examine student data. Districts notoriously layer reform on top of reform, creating what I call “school reform lasagna.” After a while, these well-meaning interventions blend together so seamlessly that it’s nearly impossible to know what works and what doesn’t. DCPS’s inventory was illuminating because of administrators’ lack of oversight and the sheer number of programs—programs that in some cases leaders didn’t know the district was funding in the first place.

Once you have the inventory, the next step is to investigate the return on those investments. This could be as simple as comparing dollars spent, students impacted and outcome data, which can provide directional information or more complex academic ROI. What does your data tell you about the areas of greatest student need? Is it middle school math? Social-emotional supports? This data should inform a district’s highest priorities.

2. Engage in strategic abandonment discussions. This is the most difficult work since every program has users and families who won’t want it to end. For example, DCPS freed resources by eliminating a popular but ineffective early-grades reading program. Transparency and communication are key when you are working to end programs.

3. Set your district’s priorities and create (or update) your five-year financial plan. Typically, school districts budget one year at a time, rarely considering the impact of today’s spending decisions on tomorrow’s budgets. Because district revenue has increased over the last decade, districts have been able to get away with the lack of long-term planning. As the fiscal cliff looms, though, that strategy is a recipe for disaster. School systems must begin thinking in the long term.

More from DA: Kentucky superintendent suspended as two other leaders call it quits

I created DCPS’s first five-year financial plan. It provided insight into the “total cost of ownership” of any program—and whether the costs were sustainable based on future revenue projections. It also provided transparency when we had to make hard choices. In fact, long-term financial plans are a tool for engaging community stakeholders in decision-making.

4. Budget for equity. Research is clear that principals have an outsized impact on student outcomes. Exceptional leaders need the resources and autonomy to make decisions on staffing and instruction that best serve their students. In addition, it’s known that money matters for student outcomes. Systems can accomplish two things simultaneously: empowering principals and preparing for fewer resources by implementing student-based, equity-driven systems for funding schools.

5. Innovate and experiment with new school models or staffing approaches. Necessity is the mother of invention. Around the country, districts are piloting different types of school models, such as large multi-teacher classrooms and multi-school leadership teams. These new ideas allow the best educators to reach more students without expanding budgets. They also expand a district or state’s ability to offer student interventions that are flexible, customizable and, most importantly, sustainable. Now is the time for schools to test different approaches and strategies that, if successful, can be scaled district- or even statewide.

These actions build on each other and can’t be rushed. It takes time to work through each step. Wait too long and districts will be forced to resort to seniority-based layoffs and across-the-board cuts. While that’s a plan designed to look like everyone feels the pain equally, this approach typically is felt the hardest by students furthest from educational equity. Districts need to start planning ahead—while they also focus on the here and now.

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What are we missing? What can parents and educators do to provide extra support? Perhaps the most critical thing we can do is ask children, rather than guessing or telling them. As an educator, when you see a dramatic change in a child, there’s usually a traumatic event that has occurred. Knowing how to spot warning signs and respond in a supportive way is essential to helping students understand how to reduce anxiety, stress and other issues.

What are the warning signs of anxiety or depression?

Weight gains or loss: One of the common reasons that young people gain weight is actually abuse, so weight certainly is something educators should be paying attention to. The idea is not to call students out but rather to find an indirect way of supporting students’ mental health.

So, for example, a district in Naperville, Illinois, had students do some exercise around a track before school. They found that if students could get their resting heart rate up to one-and-a-half times their resting rate, they actually did better on standardized tests

Severe mood swings/lashing out: As with weight gain, something has triggered these behaviors. Whether students are modeling something that they’ve seen at home or having a shame-based response, people who feel exposed are more likely to act out in rage.

Teachers’ first response here should be to understand how much information they can get from the child about what they are experiencing. Next would be an invitation to the parents, saying, “These are some of the things that are going on at school. Could you help me understand what’s happening at home?” It’s also informative to ask, “What are they saying about school at home? Are they talking about frustrations?”

The goal is not to make the parents feel like they’re doing something wrong.The goal is to create an alliance with parents so that you can all understand the root of the issue. Is the student being bullied at school? Is something happening on a bus or on the way to school? When you see extreme mood swings, there’s almost always a story behind it.

Disengagement/sleeping in class: Sleeping in class is a clear warning sign, but teachers should also be on the lookout for students who have their heads down every day. They’re disengaged, they’re not making eye contact, and usually a lack of eye contact is shame-based, right? They don’t want to be seen. These individuals who don’t feel part of the class are more likely to start skipping class. Kids can fall through the cracks, and post-COVID a lot of kids are having a hard time going back to school because they were actually comfortable doing everything online.

Excessive screen time: Based on research, the No. 1 thing that is triggering adolescent anxiety today is screen time. Educators (and certainly parents) should do everything they can to be aware of how much a child is using a device. I know some schools have made the choice to not have phones in the classroom. This may help students focus during course time but it doesn’t address the cause of excessive screen time, which is often an emotional issue they’re struggling with.

It’s important to note here that there’s a difference between being an adolescent and being depressed. To some degree, mood swings and anxiety are a normal part of adolescence. The warning sign is when a student is anxious or depressed to the point where they say, “I just can’t get up.” If they’re coming up on finals or other key events, they need time to work through the stress but if concerning behaviors continue for a month or more, they need to be addressed.

How districts can support students’ mental health

Build a support team: Schools have the opportunity to influence the children’s minds in many ways, but it has to be a team effort. Teachers and the school counselor should be a part of the team. Districts can also help by setting up peer support networks. My children have been a part of a national peer-to-peer suicide prevention group called the Hope Squad. Giving students the opportunity to connect with someone their age may be the most powerful way districts can support their students’ mental health. The more support students have, the more connected they feel and the better off they are.

More from DA: This is how many teachers would carry a gun to make their school safer

Create ways for struggling students to succeed: When students who are struggling with mental health are in school, teachers can really help by creating moments for these individuals to succeed. It may be as straightforward as saying, “You know what? You came to school today and I know what was hard.” Having somebody pay attention to the fact that they stepped through those doors matters because when students are suffering, having somebody paying attention can make an enormous difference.

Hold community-building events: When it comes to fostering social connection, districts have a unique capacity to hold activities and events that bring students, teachers and families together. I think what we did here in Utah during the pandemic was actually quite incredible. Even throughout the year when everyone was out of classrooms, our schools continued to host sporting events and as many other activities as possible. I believe our state held something like 95% of scheduled activities, which really helped maintain some sense of normalcy and community.

Meet students and families where they are: Of course not all students attend events, so the next challenge is identifying those students who are struggling and reaching out to their family members so they can get the support they need. Working parents may have a hard time connecting with school or district leaders in person, but tools like ParentGuidance.org can be an enormous help. It’s a free resource for parents created by licensed therapists (including me) and districts across the country use it to provide families with information about mental health and practical steps they can take to talk their child through tough issues such as bullying, self-harm or when to report something suspicious to a trusted adult.

ParentGuidance.org also offers informative courses for parents. For example, we recently finished up a course to help parents understand ADHD and share some things they can do to help children with ADHD. Sharing resources is not enough, though. It takes more time and more energy. Why not periodically do Zoom meetings with parents, not only the ones whose children are struggling, but the ones who are thriving?

Creating these opportunities to connect over time shows families that you value their feedback. I believe that if schools, families, students and mental health professionals work with each other harmoniously, we’ll see much more effective learning for every student.

The post 4 warning signs that students are struggling with mental health. And 4 solutions. appeared first on District Administration.

Seven weeks ago, Turnitin launched its preview for its AI writing detection tool. As of May 14, the company has processed at least 38.5 million submissions for AI writing, and, to no surprise, they’re uncovering AI-written text, according to a recent blog post from Turnitin’s Chief Product Officer Annie Chechitelli.

According to the data, 9.6% of their total submissions contain over 20% of AI writing and 3.5% contained between 80% and 100%.

“It’s important to consider that these statistics also include assignments in which educators may have authorized or assigned the use of AI tools, but we do not distinguish that in these numbers,” Chechitelli wrote. “We are not ready to editorialize these metrics as ‘good’ or ‘bad’; the data is the data.”

She also stresses that the data is imperfect. Like with any plagiarism or AI detector, there’s a chance that they’ll mistakenly flag a student’s assignment.

“As a result of this additional testing, we’ve determined that in cases where we detect less than 20% of AI writing in a document, there is a higher incidence of false positives,” she wrote. “This is inconsistent behavior, and we will continue to test to understand the root cause.”

Such mistakes could also leave educators puzzled about how to resolve the issue of suspected cheating by students. Based on feedback from teachers using Turnitin’s AI detector, Chechitelli notes that many simply don’t know how to react and approach students after their assignments are flagged for AI-written text.

Fortunately, the company has published several resources educators and district leaders should take advantage of when considering AI’s capabilities for enhancing student learning—when used ethically—in the classroom. Here’s a look at all five:

• How to approach a student misusing AI: This guide helps educators learn about how to approach this conversation with a student, starting with collecting “clear and definitive documentation.”
• Discussion starters for tough conversations about AI: Discussions surrounding the issue should support honest, open dialogue. Start with addressing the students’ strengths demonstrated in the assignment, their weaknesses and then their apparent misuse of AI.
• How to handle false positive flags: While false positive rates are small, it’s important that educators know how to begin the conversation when it occurs.
• Handling false positives as a student: Before submitting assignments, students should make sure they know the rules regarding AI use and what is and isn’t acceptable.
• Ethical AI use checklist for students: Educators encouraging the use of AI in and out of the classroom should take steps to ensure students are upholding academic integrity by following these guidelines.

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Still, bullying ranks above active shooters as teachers’ No. 1 safety concern, RAND’s researchers found.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Americans are worried that schools are not safe from gun violence. Some 57% of Americans now say they think the schools in their community are safe from gun violence, a drop from the 65% who said the same in 2019, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist University national poll found.

More than 330 people were injured or killed in approximately 300 school shootings in 2022; there were 250 shooting incidents in 2021, the RAND Corporation reports. “These two most recent years have seen well more than double the number of shooting incidents at schools each year throughout the 2000s,” the authors of the study said. “All told, more than 330,000 students have been exposed to gun violence in a school setting in the past two decades.”

Teachers remain divided on the issue of letting educators carry firearms. While 54% said it would make schools less safe, 20% said arming teachers would improve security. The rest landed in the middle, saying guns would make schools neither more nor less safe. More white teachers than Black teachers said they believe arming teachers would improve safety while male teachers in rural schools were most likely to say they would carry a firearm at school if allowed.

More from DA: Kentucky superintendent suspended as two other leaders call it quits 

Several past surveys by other researchers have found lower levels of support among teachers for arming themselves, RAND’s researchers add. Meanwhile, about half of teachers think more common safety measures—such as locks, ID badges, cameras, and security staff—improve their school’s climate.

Arming teachers: What’s next?

Administrators and policymakers are encouraged to take a look at school districts that have more expansive teacher-carry programs to understand if the policy has made schools safer or if there have been unintended consequences, such as accidental discharges of firearms. How parents, students and staff have responded to the policy in those districts should also be considered.

Here are other steps that RAND recommends K12 administrators take before arming teachers:

1. Assess their outcomes potential outcomes by conducting a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of teacher-carry programs.
2. Develop risk analysis approaches that focus on both frequent, lower-level forms of school violence (such as bullying) and less likely, extreme forms of school violence—such as shootings.
3. Develop a deeper understanding of the sources of teachers’ safety concerns.
4. Identify how fears of victimization and other safety concerns contribute to teacher and principal turnover and to student enrollment, attendance and academic performance.
5. Take the pulse of parents, teachers, administrators, and students about school safety measures. Disaggregate feedback by type of community to zero in on the perceptions of school safety.

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Before it was burned, the small flag was displayed in a planter outside of a classroom at Saticoy Elementary School. The Los Angeles Police Department says it took a report last week and launched a hate crime vandalism investigation.

It’s not clear who burned it but it seems to be part of a deeper divide among parents over whether LGBTQ and Pride issues should be taught in grade school.

Read more from ABC7.com.

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What happened: A group from the Marvell-Elaine School District, including at least two district employees, argued that the Legislature didn’t vote separately on an emergency clause, meaning the law cannot yet be enforced. Without an emergency clause, it would take 90 days for the law to go into effect.

The state board of education voted last month to allow a transformation contract for a charter school to take over the district. The judge’s ruling halts that.

Context: The group filing the complaint, Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students (CAPES), is the same collection of parents and educators seeking to overturn the LEARNS Act by statewide referendum in 2024.

Read more from Axios.

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Scot Peterson was assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland as a school resource officer when a gunman opened fire at the South Florida high school on Feb. 14, 2018, killing 14 students and three staff members.

Peterson, 60, was terminated from his position and charged with multiple counts of child neglect in 2019 after an internal investigation found that he retreated while students were under attack.

Read more from ABC News.

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A March report from EdResearch For Recovery and the Tennessee Education Research Alliance outlines best practices and guidelines for district leaders using data collection to measure and assess their summer programs. Separated into four key focus areas, the report addresses what data schools should be collecting and research-based recommendations to support schools that seek to make the most of their data collection.

Demographics of Summer Enrollment

Questions to ask:

• “Are the students who are enrolling in the program the ones who would benefit the most from the additional academic support and school engagement opportunities?”
• “Which students should we target for additional recruiting efforts?”

Schools should maintain a list for each program or site of every student who signs up, including those who never attend. Then, link enrollment data to the district’s Student Information System (SIS) to ensure enrollment is connected to student-level characteristics.

“Analyzing enrollment, apart from attendance, can help identify barriers in the participation pipeline,” the report reads. “Capturing this year-over-year and tracking no-show rates provides a clearer picture of the percentage of students who enroll in the program and the share of those students who actually attend.”

Summer Attendance Patterns

Questions to ask:

• “What are the broad attendance trends over the course of the program?”
• “Which groups of students are attending more regularly and attending more days?”
• “Which students are not attending regularly and might benefit from support plans?”

Schools must document the programs or sites students attended, including their dates. Similarly, begin linking that data to your SIS.

“Attendance is strongest when programs communicate the benefits of high attendance during recruiting, establish an enrollment deadline, follow-up with reminders about the program, provide transportation, and create an engaging site climate with positive adult-student relationships,” according to the report.

More from DA: A new look at the teacher shortage—is it worse than we thought?

Teacher, Student and Family  Experiences

Questions ask:

• “Did students have positive experiences in the program?”
• “Do students report higher levels of non-academic outcomes (self-efficacy, connection etc.) at the end of the program?”
• “How do teachers and parents view the quality of the program?”
• “What do parents and teachers see as strengths and areas for growth for the program?”

Using student, teacher and family surveys, schools should administer these before and after the programs to assess changes over time, gain retrospective insight and gather feedback on teachers’ and families’ experiences.

Academic Outcomes

Questions to ask:

• “Did students attending the program improve on targeted academic skills?”
• “Did students who attended the program longer see more academic achievement?”
• “Did summer program participants perform better on benchmark exams compared with non-participants?”

Leveraging available achievement data, including benchmark exams, will help educators better understand how to design programs that provide the most academic benefit for students.

“Ultimately, collecting and examining this data can give school and district leaders a measuring stick with which to assess their progress toward their goals,” the report reads. “It can help ensure that their summer programs are always improving and providing the best possible outcomes for students.”

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Anne Staffieri has been chosen as the next superintendent of the San Dieguito Union High School District in California after leading the Escondido Union High School District for the past four years. Staffieri was also superintendent of Ramona USD from 2016-19. A former high school biology and Spanish teacher, Staffieri was named superintendent of the year by the California Continuation Education Association in 2021.

In North Carolina, Dale Cole has been unanimously approved as superintendent of Brunswick County Schools. A 30-year education veteran, Cole is now superintendent of Clay County Schools and has also worked for districts in Hyde and Beaufort counties. He also was voted North Carolina’s principal of the year 2013. In Ohio, Jeff Harrison will take over as superintendent of Brecksville-Broadview Heights City Schools on Aug. 1. Harrison, who has more than 20 years of experience in education, is currently the superintendent of Buckeye Local Schools.

Finally, in the Northwest, Superintendent Kim Spacek is moving from the 200-student Inchelium School District No. 70 in Washington to Mountain View School District 244 in Idaho, the Idaho County Free Press reports.

First-time superintendents take charge

Among the notable first-timers is Suzanne Johnson, who has been selected as the next superintendent of School District U-46, the second-largest in Illinois. Johnson had served five years as the suburban Chicago district’s deputy superintendent of instruction before being named interim superintendent in February.

In North Carolina, Major Warner will replace 10-year veteran David Jeck as superintendent of Fauquier County Public Schools in Virginia. Warner, who is now deputy superintendent, helped increase graduation rates and mentor principals and staff as Fauquier County’s chief academic officer. Warner began his career as a school counselor.

In the same state, Nakia Hardy, a deputy superintendent in Durham Public Schools, has been chosen to lead Lexington City Schools. Hardy has previously served as chief academic officer for Guilford County Schools, the executive director for teaching and learning for Baltimore City Public Schools and the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for Rockingham County Schools.

In California, Julienne Lee was chosen to lead the Buena Park School District near Los Angeles after having served as associate superintendent of educational services at Fullerton School District, where she oversaw dual-language immersion programs in Spanish and Korean and an award-winning intervention program. Lee has also been a dual-language immersion teacher, a Response to Intervention coach, an assistant principal and a principal.

Also in California, Gilroy USD has chosen as its next superintendent Anisha Munshi, an associate superintendent of professional learning and educational progress at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. Munshi began her career as an elementary school teacher and assistant principal at Gilroy USD.

More from DA: This low-profile staff position can save districts millions each year 

And in Texas, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD has made interim superintendent Alejandro Elias its permanent leader. Elias has been the principal of an early college high school and a middle school in the district.

Other recently hired first-time superintendents include:

• Nathan Black, School District of Nekoosa (Wisconsin)
• Tamara Champa, Hastings Public Schools (Minnesota)
• Lisa Fletcher, Transylvania County Schools (North Carolina)
• Consuela Girty, Cherokee Central Schools (North Carolina)
• Elizabeth Kaufman, Mill Valley School District (California)
• Rebecca Kidwell, Seekonk Public Schools (Massachusetts)
• Matthew Neighbors, Galveston ISD (Texas)
• Robert Pappalardo, Apache Junction Unified School District (Arizona)
• Dana Kriznar (interim), Duval County Public Schools (Florida)

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Cheryl McGee, the agency’s former executive director of school-based mental health, claims in her lawsuit she was fired after being accused of sharing an email with the media.

Read more on AP News.

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