Happy Back to School!

As local students and families adjust to the school routine, I wanted to call attention to a couple of education-related items on our site:

• Community Indicators K-12 Education category is a How-To Guide for the New York State Department of Education dashboard. All school districts in our region are included on the dashboard!

• Check out Brain Food with the Education tag, including a Guest Post from Dr. Tyana Velazquez-Smith

• Check out education resources from national organizations under Resources, including:

  • The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University is a great resources for interactive data tools and research, including the 2019 to 2023 Education Recovery Explorer. See also related article published in The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/05/upshot/a-better-way-to-compare-public-schools.html and https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/01/upshot/learning-loss-school-districts.html

  • The Education Data Initiative is a wealth of information on a range of topics including financial aid statistics, student loan debt, and education spending statistics.

Enjoy some Brain Food to kick off the 2024-2025 school year!

Guest Post: Navigating Screen Time in Early Childhood

It’s no secret that too much screen time can throw off a child’s bedtime routine or cut into playtime that’s critical for their physical and social development. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests keeping it simple: no screens for kids under 2 (except for video chats) and only an hour a day for children between 2 and 5, focusing on high-quality programming.

Despite the downsides, there's a silver lining to screen use. Educational apps and shows from trusted creators like Sesame Workshop and PBS Kids have been lifesavers, offering engaging ways to introduce concepts like ABCs and 123s. We want to choose programs that are age-appropriate and foster curiosity rather than passive consumption.

My Top Tips for a Balanced Screen Diet

1. Pick Quality Content: Just like we watch what our kids eat, let’s be selective about what they watch. Look for programs that are educational and free of fast-paced, flashy distractions.

2. Set Clear Boundaries: Consistency is everything. Set clear rules about when screens are allowed and when they’re not, and stick to them as much as possible.

3. Watch Together: Whenever you can, sit down and watch with your kids. This lets us talk about what they're seeing and connect it back to things they know or have experienced, which turns screen time into a shared, interactive moment.

4. Designate Screen-free Spaces: Let’s make spaces like bedrooms a no-screen zone, which helps signal that these spaces are for sleeping and relaxing, not digital play.

5. Encourage Other Activities: Let’s also look for ways to get our kids playing outside or with toys that don’t have a power button. It’s important they learn to find joy and engagement in activities that don’t involve screens.

Finding the perfect balance of screen time can feel daunting, but by setting thoughtful guidelines and actively participating in how our children engage with digital media, we can make sure technology acts as a tool for learning and growth, not just a way to pass the time. It’s all about creating a healthy media diet that works for each child’s needs and the family’s values. Here’s to navigating the digital age with a little more confidence and a lot more heart!

Dr. Tyana Velazquez-Smith is the Director of Early Childhood at Rochester Area Community Foundation. With a doctorate in Teaching and Curriculum from the University of Rochester, Dr. Velazquez-Smith is an adjunct instructor at U of R, teaching courses like Race, Class, Gender & Disability in American Schools. She is the Founder and CEO of Sensational Inclusion, dedicated to building equitable educational ecosystems. Dr. Velazquez-Smith is a native Rochestarian, passionate activist, educator, and dedicated researcher.

Who gets in to college, and why does it matter?

On July 26, 2023, Economists Raj Chetty of Harvard University and John Friedman of Brown University published a paper examining the impact of college admissions on upward mobility. They used admissions data, income tax records, and SAT/ACT test scores to study whether a change in admissions policies at the most prestigious colleges could increase socioeconomic diversity of US leaders.

Their work finds that current admissions policies perpetuate privilege, emphasizing legacy status, extracurricular activities, and athletics — all of which are biased toward affluence. The takeaway is that a change in policy toward a focus on other factors could improve socioeconomic diversity in accepted students and therefore improve upward mobility.

For a deeper dive, read the paper and check out this Brookings Insitute webinar.

The 74

The 74 is a nonprofit news organization specifically focused on US education. Per the website, their mission is to use “data, investigation, and expertise” in order to “lead an honest, fact-based conversation about how to give American students the skills, support and social mobility they deserve” and “to challenge the status quo, expose corruption and inequality, spotlight solutions, confront the impact of systemic racism, and champion the heroes bringing positive change to our schools.”

Articles from The 74 include a student’s perspective on financial aid in 2019, research analyses such as “4 Things Districts Should Do Right Now – Before the Fiscal Cliff,” school funding analysis by renowned scholars, and a study of school-family communication. 

Consider The 74 as a resource for education narratives. 

Common Sense Reform for School Discipline from The Children’s Agenda

Local advocacy organization The Children’s Agenda published a brief on school discipline reform. Using statewide data, the brief highlights the relationship between restricting punitive disciplinary practices and improved student achievement and graduation rates. Based on their analysis, The Children’s Agenda recommends a concrete policy change: limiting suspensions to 20 days. 

Approachable and informative, the report uses both facts and figures to lay out the deficiencies of current policy and the inequities of suspensions and expulsions.  A particularly helpful table on page 11 illustrates how far behind New York State is on restricting early-grade suspensions compared to other states. According to the table, Ohio has a 10-day limit on suspensions, California has a 20-day limit, and Wisconsin has a 15-day limit. 

The Children’s Agenda brief urges us to face local (and regional) expulsion and suspension policies. It is also an opportunity to think about our communities and what it would take to make this policy change successful for children and our schools.

To learn more about the Solutions Not Suspensions bill in pursuit of the recommended reforms, go to https://www.solutionsnotsuspensionsny.org/sns-bill.