Policy Currents | The newsletter for policy people
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** Aug. 1, 2024
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Pandemic Learning Loss Is Still a Problem. How Are School Districts Addressing It?
It has been more than four years since COVID-19 forced U.S. schools to suspend in-person instruction, but students still have a long way to go to recover from academic setbacks related to the pandemic. What are school districts doing to address this?
Results from a new RAND survey show that districts nationwide continue to take a wide range of approaches to recover learning losses, including social and emotional learning instruction, in-person tutoring, and expanded summer and afterschool programming. Further, 83 percent of districts added staff in the 2023-2024 school year to assist with students' academic recovery.
Importantly, the federal aid that is supporting many of these interventions is set to expire in September. This is a concern for many district leaders we spoke to: One-quarter of districts anticipated revenue drops in the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years, and four in ten high-poverty districts expected cuts in the coming school year. Reducing teachers was the most common budget cut anticipated by districts.
These findings provide valuable insights into the state of K12 education and will be useful to district leaders and policymakers as pandemic recovery efforts continue.
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Ukraine's 'Old-School' Approach to Battlefield Communication
Since the introduction of the first two-way radios, militaries have become increasingly dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum rather than physical cables for communications. But these technologies are costly and often targeted and jammed by adversaries. That's why, as the war with Russia continues, Ukraine is relying more on legacy communication techniques, such as runners and dispatch drivers. According to RAND's Nicholas Johnson, this shows that vintage systems can sometimes provide militaries with simpler and cheaper alternatives to keep critical lines of communication open.
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Competition for Critical Minerals Is Intensifying
Critical minerals power modern life. They are essential to smartphones, lightbulbs, clean energy technologies, and more. And because demand for these natural resources--such as cobalt, lithium and nickel--keeps rising, strategic competition for controlling them is becoming more intense. In a new video series, RAND experts describe pressing global issues related to critical minerals. For example, China's dominance of the critical mineral supply chain poses security threats to the United Staes. And in the Congo, the exploitation of critical minerals is linked to human rights abuses.
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** RAND Recommends
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- RAND's Raphael Cohen spoke to AlArabiya News about the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. "This will certainly increase the level of violence across the region in the short term," he said, "and also put any idea of Gaza ceasefire/hostage deal on pause.""
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- America's middle class is struggling. "There's a sense of uncertainty that's worse now in this generation of the middle class than previous generations," RAND's Jeffrey Wenger told CNN.
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- As Norway's role in NATO evolves, researchers from RAND Europe assess the country's long-term defense plan and how it may support the future of the transatlantic alliance.
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** Learn the Tools of Defense Policy Analysis
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Applications are open for Pardee RAND Graduate School's new Master of National Security Policy degree program. Full-time and part-time schedules are available at our campuses in Santa Monica, CA, and Arlington, VA.
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