Our team is always seeking the latest news in the field of education. As advocates for a high-quality education for ALL students, we know we have to stay up-to-date on everything that’s going on in the education spheres of our nation…from the White House to the local public school district, from new legislation to the small acts of bravery and kindness made by a single teacher, from the milestones and celebrations to the hazardous injustices affecting many of our nation’s students.

Here are the stories that got us talking this week.

Why the nation should screen all students for trauma like California does via The Conversation

If all the country’s children could undergo developmentally appropriate screenings for what we in the medical and social work communities call adverse childhood experiences, I suggest, based on my research, millions of tax dollars could be saved every year, premature deaths and diseases could be prevented and schools would be healthier, happier places for students and teachers. A quiet but urgent public health crisis could finally be seriously addressed.

5 Things That Policymakers Can Do to Improve Early Childhood Education (ECE) via The Education Trust 

What can federal, state, and local policymakers do to ensure the diversity of the ECE workforce? First and foremost, the early childhood educators of color to whom we spoke asked that policymakers engage in dialogue with them before they make policies and during the policymaking process, in order to make policies as successful as possible.

Where Civility Is a Motto, a School Integration Fight Turns Bitter via The New York Times

The planned community of Columbia, southwest of Baltimore, has prided itself on its ethos of inclusion ever since it was founded more than half a century ago. Racially integrated. Affordable apartments near big homes. “The Next America” was its optimistic, harmonious motto.

But a recent proposal to restore some of that idealism by balancing the number of low-income children enrolled in schools across Howard County, including those in Columbia, has led to bitter divisions.

One thing to read this weekend

What happened when Brooklyn tried to integrate its middle schools via The Washington Post 

On the first day of sixth grade, at his new school in a new neighborhood, Angel Angon Quiroz, 11, sat by himself in the corner of the cafeteria, wondering if he had made a mistake.

Students at Angel’s old elementary school overwhelmingly come from poor and Hispanic families. Now, a new integration plan in Brooklyn had placed him at a middle school called the Math & Science Exploratory School. It was popular with affluent families, but would he fit in?

“Everyone else knows each other, but I know none of them,” he said. “We are all puzzles, and I’m the only puzzle who doesn’t fit.”

Did any of these articles particularly speak to you? We would love to hear your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below: