This week, we spent time in Jackson, Mississippi, where kids are going back to school. We also looked at the CDC's new COVID guidelines and how colleges are preparing for Monkeypox. Plus, some news for cereal lovers.
Jeffrey Pierre/NPR
Happy Sunday,
Jeff here with a post-roadtrip postcard from Jackson, Mississippi, where students are returning to classrooms for the new school year. Some are nervous, some excited. And some families are still worried about masking after the district dropped its mask mandate.
Cory Turner and I shadowed the superintendent of Jackson Public Schools, Dr. Errick L. Greene (seen above), as he set out to visit 26 schools during the first week of classes. He wanted to be sure things were running smoothly but also that his vast team felt seen — a teacher, a custodian, or an administrator seeing to it that her students have a way to get to school.
Things like this are important to Greene because he knows his district isn't always celebrated. It is his fifth year running JPS and shortly before he was appointed, the state announced a plan to take over the failing school district (which it eventually avoided). The district made some strides in the years after but like all things, the pandemic affected learning.
The bad news: After more than a year of online instruction during the pandemic, students took a big hit academically. Math scores cratered. The good news: Student scores appear to have rebounded dramatically last year. Still, even before the pandemic, the district’s proficiency levels were low, Greene says. “We still got a ways to go.”
The district will have a tall order this school year — and that’s not new. Some schools need to fix a bathroom, others a new roof or HVAC system. Luckily for Jackson, there are federal dollars to help, but they can’t fix everything. The city is also under a boil water notice and some water pipes are in such disrepair that several schools barely have enough water pressure to flush their toilets.
“Even with the [Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund] that we have… we happen to be in a position where we have to use a large chunk of those funds to ensure safety, air quality and that sort of thing in our buildings because we've not had resources to install or replace the HVAC systems or ensure that roofs are not leaking and you don't have mold and all that stuff.”
Greene says he would rather use that money on learning. Jackson, like so many big-city districts, is under-funded and has to do more for its students with less money than neighboring districts.
While test scores rebounded last year, Greene says that he could also see how simple, normal life was weighing on both students and teachers.
“You could see the stress on folks’ faces last year,” he said.
But there’s a lot to celebrate in Jackson, too. One school is getting a new library. Many classrooms have smart boards. Mental health and learning are a focus. And most importantly, a lot of students, families and teachers we spoke with are happy to be back in the rhythms of school.
If you want to read and listen to more of this story, tune into NPR this week and follow us on Twitter, where we will have more of our reporting.
What parents, teachers and students should know about the CDC's new COVID guidelines. The new school year is underway and so are new federal guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released updated recommendations on Thursday, largely loosening virus protocols and leaving much of the decision-making to individuals and local officials. The changes to the existing guidance are a reflection of the country's sweeping immunity. Around 95% of the population have some immunity due to a combination of vaccination and past infections, according to Greta Massetti, a senior epidemiologist at the CDC. Read more here.
— Juliana Kim, Digital News Reporter
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Colleges are preparing for a new public health threat: monkeypox. Ahead of the new school year, colleges across the country are repurposing the tools they developed during the pandemic to address the monkeypox outbreak, which the White House recently declared a public health emergency. It's a different virus, with different risks, and colleges are having to adapt, says Dr. Lindsey Mortenson of the American College Health Association (ACHA). Read more here.
—Pooja Salhotra, NPR Ed Intern
And before you go, the latest on breakfast cereal…
General Mills
General Mills is releasing four limited-edition Monster Cereals boxes as part of a new collaboration with pop artist KAWS. Franken Berry, Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Frute Brute are back for this year's seasonal release. Fans are particularly excited about the appearance of Frute Brute, which is available for the first time since 2013. The boxes have been reimagined following the same design as the original boxes, with an illustration of each character and a photo of the cereal in a bowl, all set on a blank white background. Read more here.
See you next week.
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