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 Hi all!
For decades, educators have struggled with the best ways to help students who are underprepared for college, particularly those who start in the nation’s community colleges and get caught in a cycle of remedial classes that ultimately lead them to drop out.
One answer over the years is to simply get rid of these required courses. This week, Jill Barshay unpacks reams of data to determine if this is a viable answer — but the answer, of course, is that it’s complicated.
Also this week, we take you to Vestavia Hills, Alabama, in a story about the replacement of a beloved principal that was written by Laura Pappano in partnership with AL.com and Salon.
Lauren Dressback, once a school district darling, divorced her husband, and began dating a Black woman. This somehow became everyone’s business after Dressback shared a photo of the woman she was dating with the school custodian. Within days she was ordered to leave the elementary school where she worked, barred from district property and later placed on administrative leave. Community members rallied around her. You’ll be drawn into the story to learn what happened next.
Finally, a little staff news. We welcomed Marina Villeneuve to our investigative team, and threw her right into a conference at Harvard Kennedy School, where her first order of business was confronting Los Angeles Superintendent Alberto Carvalho over a failed AI chatbot the district had invested millions of dollars in. Carvalho told her the district is navigating the company’s bankruptcy and will soon be announcing a “new and improve entity” that addresses student privacy concerns.
We are also celebrating a win at by our development manager Ruby Franzen as “nonprofit newcomer of the year” at last week’s Online News Association conference in Atlanta.
As always, we love to hear from our readers. Please send us your tips and thoughts by responding to this email or using our tip line.
Liz Willen, Editor
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 Main Idea |
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Students earned more credits at first, but graduation rates didn’t increase at Tennessee’s community colleges
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A message from this week's sponsor:
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The EGF Accelerator is supporting strong leaders in sustainable nonprofits that are working to improve the education and life outcomes for low-income New Yorkers. We offer incubation, advanced leadership development, a remote Fellows program, and fund journalism about educational equity. Want to know more? Drop us a line. [email protected].
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Reading List
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⭐ Extra credit! We offer most of our stories under a noncommercial Creative Commons license. What does that mean? You are allowed to repost or reprint our stories as long as you follow these guidelines. Questions? Email Nichole Dobo, our Director of Audience Development at [email protected].
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In a wealthy suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, a beloved school leader tests the limits of tolerance in her hometown
State trust lands in 15 states generate revenue for schools, hospitals and prisons through leases for oil and gas extraction, grazing, rights of way, timber, and more
Milwaukee is working to boost teacher confidence in the subject
Institutions have to obey the law, but there are still ways colleges that value diversity can and should consider race
More guidance is needed to keep potentially harmful, untested technologies out of classrooms
Seventeen states offer tax credits to businesses that operate or contract out for child care services for their employees
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