What We’re Reading: Week of September 6, 2021

I hope everyone enjoyed the short week! In today’s news roundup, you can find pieces on updates to COVID policies in schools, gender inequities in higher education, decreases in test scores for college admissions, and more.

Have a story you think the Linked Learning field should read? Reach out to me at ava@linkedlearning.org!

Policy
Changes for educating quarantined California students proposed by governor, Legislature, EdSource
Responding to districts’ complaints, the Newsom administration and legislative leaders are proposing revising requirements for educating and funding quarantined students through independent study this year.

LA Unified becomes largest school district to mandate Covid vaccine for students, EdSource
The Los Angeles Unified school board voted Thursday to require all students 12 and older be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by January, making it the largest public school district in the nation to mandate coronavirus vaccines for students.

Equity

To Achieve Educational Justice, We Need More Black Teachers, EdSurge
While Black students account for 15% of all public schools students in the U.S., Black teachers make up just 7 percent of the teacher workforce. To reach proportional parity between Black teachers and students, we would need 280,000 more Black teachers in our public schools.

Higher Education

A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’, Wall Street Journal
The number of men enrolled at two- and four-year colleges has fallen behind women by record levels, in a widening education gap across the U.S.

Far fewer prospective college students submitted admissions test scores last year, report finds, Higher Ed Dive
Only about two-fifths of students who applied to college during the 2020-21 school year using the Common Application included their SAT or ACT scores, a sharp decline from the prior year, when more than three-fourths of college prospects did so.