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4 Ways to Build a Strong Professional Learning Network for Innovation and GrowthProblem solving is a key skill in teaching. But in the past year, especially, the problems in need of a solution seem to have grown exponentially. How do we teach kids online and in person at the same time? How do we build a strong community of learners when, in some cases, kids haven’t seen each other for more than a year? How can we continue to have students collaborate meaningfully?More than ever, we need to connect with others who can help us find the innovative solutions and opportunities hidden within this disruption of education-as-usual.More than ever, we need to connect with others who can help us find the innovative solutions and opportunities hidden within this disruption of education-as-usual. To th...

Missing in School Reopening Plans: Black Families’ TrustDeep-seated mistrust among Black families toward their public school districts is holding back school reopening, even as Black children suffer inordinately from remote learning.For Farah Despeignes, the choice of whether to send her children back to New York City classrooms as the coronavirus pandemic raged on last fall was no choice at all.Ms. Despeignes, a Black mother of two, watched in despair as her Bronx neighborhood was devastated by Covid-19 last spring. She knew it would take a long time for her to trust that the nation’s largest public school system could protect her sons’ health — and by extension her own.“Everything that has happened in this country just in the last year has proved that Black people have no reason to trust...

February 2021 Speech Code of the Month: Johns Hopkins UniversityWe’re proud to say our long-running Speech Code of the Month series — in which we highlight a policy that is particularly restrictive of students’ free speech rights — gets results, with about 50% of schools responding by revising the speech code in question. But some universities seem to be stuck in a time loop, like Bill Murray’s character in the movie “Groundhog Day,” holding onto those same, problematic policies. Back in 2006, FIRE selected the “Principles for Ensuring Equity, Civility and Respect for All” policy at Johns Hopkins University as Speech Code of the Month, as it broadly states: “Rude, disrespectful behavior is unwelcome and will not be tolerated.” Fifteen years later, the policy, which appears in the set of ex...