Penn GSE News Archive
Student ‘Mental Health Days’ Catching On In More States
Michael Gottfried speaks about mental health absences in schools. Unexcused absences can lead to truancy, get kids into trouble, get parents into trouble, and can lead to juvenile justice outcomes, he says. Schools need to keep careful track of students who take repeated mental health days.
Scores on Pa. standardized tests fell in 2021, but many students didn’t take them
Jonathan Supovitz comments on the drop in Pennsylvania students’ standardized testing scores. Given the pandemic and the challenges of virtual learning, Supovitz says the scores are “not surprising, and it is also entirely consistent with other places in the country.”
Six takeaways from two years of online learning
Ryan Baker shares some best practices and which practices to avoid after two years of virtual learning. Virtual learning should focus on ensuring that students experience as little disruption to their education as possible. The key to that is creating a discourse around the use of technology.
What Is a Net Price Calculator?
Laura Perna speaks about net price calculators and their implications in college admissions. The three buckets that matter for college opportunity are financial aid, academic readiness, and information, she says. Net price calculators are an “important mechanism to help people understand really early on in the process ideally, how much it will actually cost.”
Six tips to help explain the realities of war to children
Marsha Richardson discusses how to explain the realities of war to children. “When it comes to issues like this, sometimes we can find it hard to connect the dots between a child’s behavior and the events unfolding in the world around them,” she says. “This is about being in tune with and understanding, developmentally, the ways in which these stressful situations might manifest for children.”
‘If you want my advice, don’t take my advice.’ When the host isn’t an expert.
Sigal Ben-Porath speaks about how information spreads outside conventional news sources. “You have a really open [media] landscape where people like Joe Rogan can hustle,” she says. “The incentive structure is built around rage rather than thoughtful engagement. At the same time, society’s values are changing. Societies are not like atomic clocks. We change and evolve over time.”
Redefining Mental Health in Black Communities around the U.S.
Howard Stevenson on the impact of trauma on Black communities nationwide: “We found that if there has been a police shooting in that neighborhood that a lot of people in the community will experience trauma…Witnessing oppression has an impact on everybody.”
Scholars’ Circle – Politics of Eroding and Sustaining Democracy in USA – February 6, 2022
Penn GSE’s Sigal Ben-Porath joined Yale University’s Jacob S. Hacker, UCLA’s Martin Gilens and Vanderbilt University’s Larry M. Bartels in The Scholars’ Circle interview to discuss the decline of democracy in the U.S., its causes, and its cures.
As COVID thins school staffing, who’s teaching kids?
Richard Ingersoll expressed concern about lowering the bar for teachers. “Remote sometimes might be much more preferable to getting some substitute in there who’s basically babysitting,” he said.