thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-23--Are We Ready? How We Are Preparing – And Not Preparing – Kids For Climate Change

Illustration: Keith Negley for HuffPost
This story about climate change and education was produced as part of the nine-part series “Are We Ready? How Schools Are Preparing ― and Not Preparing ― Children for Climate Change,” reported by HuffPost and The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
Science textbooks used in Florida and Texas call climate change “one of the most debated issues in modern science.” A Texas science textbook for seventh graders says “scientists hypothesize” that the increase in carbon dioxide “has contributed to the recent rise in global temperature.”
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A high school social studies book, also used in Texas, says of rising temperatures, “Some critics say that this warming is just part of the Earth’s natural cycle,” though, in truth, there’s overwhelming consensus among climate scientists that the current warming is due to human activities.
Such descriptions of climate change are muddled and misleading, according to four climate scientists who reviewed them as part of a Hechinger/HuffPost analysis of 32 middle school and high school textbooks and digital curricula and what they say on the subject.
In the review of the 32 textbooks, which are used in California, Florida, Oklahoma or Texas, we found that at least 12 included descriptions of climate change that were superficial or contained errors. Another four of the science books did not discuss the topic at all. And some downplayed the scientific consensus that human activities are causing the current climate crisis, according to the four experts who reviewed the passages for Hechinger/HuffPost, although they had varying perspectives on the extent of those problems.
“What many of the texts have done is to give the few contrarian voices with their loud megaphones a much greater voice in the text than is warranted based on the science and the assessments of the various national academies of science and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” Richard Alley, a professor in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State who studies climate change, and who was most critical of the textbooks, wrote in an email.
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Kerry Emanuel, a professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote that many of the texts “at least tried to get the science right” on climate change and most errors were minor, but “in a few cases, it was fairly clear that there was little interest in conveying a scientifically correct account, or worse, an active intent to deceive.”
High school students have become an increasing force in climate change activism; in 2019, hundreds of thousands of young people skipped school and took to the streets to protest the climate crisis in a global strike. But in the United States, many of the textbooks they use in class barely scratch the surface of the tremendous obstacles their generation will face on this issue.
Misleading Language
Some of the textbooks also introduce confusion about the causes of climate change, according to the four experts, who in addition to Alley and Emanuel included scholars at Texas A&M and the University of California San Diego.
“Scientists hypothesize that this rise in [carbon dioxide] has contributed to the recent rise in global temperature,” reads a passage from TEKS iScience Grade 7, the Texas version of a McGraw Hill book published in 2015.
“‘Hypothesize’ is too weak,” one expert wrote. “It’s much stronger than a hypothesis,” wrote another.
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The eighth grade version of the same book says some of the increase in carbon dioxide is due to human activities, when nearly all of it is caused by the burning of fossil fuels and other human actions, the experts wrote.
And a passage that appears in a 2019 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt sixth grade science textbook used in Florida and in a 2015 sixth grade science book used in Texas calls climate change “one of the most debated issues in modern science.”
. Florida HMH Grade 6 Science Fusion p. 49
Emanuel, of MIT, wrote in response: “The evidence for human-induced climate change is now unequivocal, and there is no debate about it within climate science.”
The rest of the passage from the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt book talks about recent warming and also mentions that evidence from the geologic record shows that Earth’s climate has experienced even larger changes in the past. That language is misleading, according to the experts we contacted, because it minimizes the overwhelming scientific evidence that humans are responsible for present-day climate change and suggests that the wide variations in climate before human civilization bring into question the role of human activities in the current warming.
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Those two phenomena are not comparable, they noted, because the previous climatic changes happened over a vastly different time span – many hundreds of thousands of years versus a few decades.
The experts raised similar concerns about a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt social studies book, Texas World Geography, which they said gave undue weight to critics who suggest that the current warming is due to the Earth’s natural cycle. “What the critics are saying is factually inaccurate,” wrote one reviewer. Others said that the passage’s description of greenhouse gases was flawed.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt said in an emailed statement that the issues raised by the Hechinger/HuffPost analysis “are important, and our teams are constantly working to evolve and improve our content.” The company said it believes “the topic of climate change is a critically important one” and its newer editions “reflect current settled science regarding climate change.” The publisher also noted that the content of textbooks is responsive to science instruction standards set by the states in which the books are sold.
In an emailed statement, McGraw Hill also noted that its books are designed to comply with state instruction standards and that the texts we reviewed were several years old. “The development process includes ongoing opportunities to validate and update our content for new editions, based on academic scholarship and changing curriculum standards,” the company said. “The information presented was based on the most current research available at the time.”
Meanwhile, the state review process for textbooks has in some cases kept problematic texts from entering classrooms. One of the Texas social studies books we examined said that “scientists do not agree on what is causing” climate change and ran side-by-side passages from a United Nations group and the Heartland Institute, a think tank that promotes climate change denialism.
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“Scientists who study the issue say it is impossible to tell if the recent small warming trend is natural, a continuation of the planet’s recovery from the more recent ‘Little Ice Age,’ or unnatural, the result of human greenhouse gas emissions,” the Heartland passage stated. McGraw Hill, the book’s publisher, noted that the book (which we purchased online) was a review copy; the particular passage had been revised after science and environmental groups raised objections to it.
And their critiques notwithstanding, some of the reviewers said the books were better than they had anticipated. Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M, wrote in an email that he had “expected to see a lot more of ‘some scientists say the climate is warming, but others say it’s not’ … or some similar both sider-isms.”
Limited Information
New standards that were unveiled in 2013 to modernize how science is taught directed schools to introduce students to climate change and how human activities influence warming beginning in middle school. But not every state has adopted the standards.
Texas, which because of its market size plays an influential role in shaping the content of textbooks even beyond its borders, is one of six states that develops its own curriculum standards, while 20 follow the national guidelines and another 24 have adopted modified versions. Meanwhile, even textbooks that are designed to be sold in states that follow the 2013 guidelines, known as the Next Generation Science Standards, have been slow to catch up.
The 32 print and digital books we examined were published between 2012 and 2020, although most – some 84 percent – were released in 2015 or later. In the 24 print science books we reviewed, the topic of climate change was described on a median of two pages, per their indexes. (Notably, we looked specifically at the types of science textbooks in which climate change is likely to appear.)
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Of 28 books that did discuss climate change, more than two-thirds mentioned the role of humans in causing or contributing to it. About half of all the science books talked about the consequences of climate change – such as sea-level rise, worsening wildfires and hurricanes and species loss – in a detailed way.
With so much information available online, many teachers report that regardless of the subject, they rely little on textbooks and prefer to design their own materials. When it comes to climate change, teachers say they often turn to outside sources because the information in textbooks is so limited.
Beatriz López taught seventh grade science in the Lake Travis Independent School District, in Austin, Texas, from 2008 to 2017. When the Texas State Board of Education last approved a list of science textbooks in 2013, López and some of her colleagues in the district reviewed the selected books.
She wasn’t particularly impressed with many of the offerings, she recalled, and her district ultimately picked the teachers’ third-choice book because their favorites were too expensive. That book, a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publication called Texas ScienceFusion, mentions climate change once, in a single paragraph.
“Long-term climate change can cause gradual and more permanent changes to ecosystems,” the book says. “Warming temperatures can melt ice in polar regions, destroying habitats for animals, such as polar bears. Changes in climate can also alter weather patterns, causing drought in some ecosystems and flooding in others.”
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There’s nothing factually inaccurate about that passage, according to the Hechinger/HuffPost reviewers. But the information is woefully brief, said López. “There’s no development,” she said. “It’s like an introduction to an essay.”
López said she and her colleagues essentially created their own textbooks, using scissors to cut out useful information from the books and pasting it together with materials they found from online resources or that they created themselves. They also worked with the district to win approval for a bespoke curriculum that would be responsive to the state standards, known as the TEKS, but that would allow them to cover important, cross-disciplinary subjects such as climate change.
“They don’t have the perspective that they need to have for a high understanding of what climate change is and how what happens today can impact the future,” López said of students in Texas. “Teachers need to find their own ways of teaching that topic because the books and TEKS are not doing it.”
Her former student Ryan Hammock, who graduates this month from the University of Texas at Austin, said he agreed. He said he didn’t recall anything about climate change in his middle school and high school textbooks except the book for his Advanced Placement environmental science class, because the topic was part of the AP standards. As president of the university’s Climate and Meteorology Society, Hammock said he often met freshmen who arrived on campus without knowledge of climate change because they hadn’t been introduced to it in school.
Science Standards
Part of the issue goes back to the science standards. In Texas, all textbooks and standards are approved by the state education board, whose 15 members are elected and rarely have subject-matter expertise. The board is gearing up for a new review of standards this fall, followed by an update of textbooks. The last time it comprehensively updated the curriculum standards was 2009, under the leadership of a board chair who told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper that evidence for human-caused global warming was “a bunch of hooey.”
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The middle school standards do not mention climate change or global warming. The terms are included three times each in the high school standards, but they are less direct about the human role in warming than the national guidelines. One provision, in particular, has drawn criticism since its approval. It instructs teachers and students to “analyze and evaluate different views on the existence of global warming,” a both-sides approach that environmental groups say ignores the overwhelming consensus on human-made causes of climate change.
Because of the lack of guidance by the state and in textbooks, some teachers find it easier just to ignore the topic than to wade into a controversial area, said John Mead, another science teacher in Texas. Mead teaches at a private school where he is given the freedom to explore climate change in depth. However, he mentors teachers around the state who say they’re fearful of broaching the issue. Some teachers tell him they don’t even feel well versed enough in climate science to pass on any expertise to students.
“Climate change is effectively absent from our state standards, so teachers who are not inclined can easily avoid it,” said Mead, a teacher at Saint Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas. “It’s very common to face backlash in the classroom.”
Dan Quinn, research director and press secretary of the Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy group that was founded to challenge the influence of the religious right in state politics, calls the standards a “muddled mess when it comes to climate science.” “Politics trumps facts and sound scholarship when it comes to developing curriculum standards, particularly on issues that are considered controversial like climate change,” he said.
Quinn, who previously worked as an editor for a textbook company, said publishers try to tailor their offerings to comply with state standards and avoid including information that would attract scrutiny.
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“They know they have to get their textbooks adopted through a political process and the way to do that is to make sure nobody hates your textbook, certainly not the people who are voting on it,” said Quinn. “You word passages in a way that you hope is not inaccurate but doesn’t spark a controversy or a debate, because the last thing you want as a sales rep is a debate over your textbook.”
Marisa Perez-Diaz, one of five Democrats on the state education board, said that while the board works congenially, there are competing views on topics including climate change. “I would absolutely love to see our TEKS be more direct and clear about what impact human interaction with the environment has had on climate change,” she said.
One of her colleagues on the board, Barbara Cargill, a Republican, wrote in an email that textbooks in the state are carefully vetted to follow the TEKS, which do mention climate change, and that teachers may choose to go into more detail on the topic depending on their school district’s curriculum requirements.
In our review of textbooks, there were not always clear differences by state in terms of textbook content. But California, which follows the Next Generation Science Standards, went further than many states in adding guidance on climate change in its expectations around implementing the standards. Some textbooks designed for the state depart from their Texas versions or similar offerings in terms of how much information they include on climate.
Amplify, a New York-based curriculum company, designed its blended digital and print science curriculum around the new national standards and has national, California and Louisiana versions only. A PDF of its 2018 California edition for sixth through eighth graders shows that climate change is mentioned more than 600 times.
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The teacher version of a 2020 Pearson California sixth grade science textbook discusses climate change on at least 25 pages, far more than most of the print books we reviewed. And while the 2015 Texas edition of the Pearson high school biology textbook discusses climate change, the latest California version, published in 2019, goes into considerably more detail, say its co-authors, Joe Levine and Ken Miller.
The California state standards provided “a clear signal to us that we could include as much material on climate change as we thought was scientifically appropriate,” the authors wrote in an email. (In an emailed statement, Pearson said the company often creates “custom editions of our textbooks” to meet state requirements but that the Texas and California high school versions are not an “apples-to-apples comparison” because of the different time frames in which the books were published and the different approaches to high school science.)
Miller and Levine recalled that in preparing the first edition of the biology textbook for publication in 1990 they were told by a few members of the marketing staff that evolution was a sensitive topic and were asked to go light on it. “We basically said no,” said Miller, a biology professor at Brown University. Since then, they said, their publisher has tried to make the book’s scientifically accurate, uncompromised information – on evolution, climate and other topics – a selling point.
Still, Texas’ textbook approval process has been a headache at times. In 2013, the state board delayed approval of the Miller and Levine biology textbook because one reviewer complained that it described evolution as a fact, not a theory. The authors said they had not faced similar challenges with respect to climate change.
At the same time, publishers in general have been sluggish to adjust to the new national science standards, which mark a big departure from previous approaches to science education. Of 10 middle school publications and digital books reviewed by the nonprofit EdReports, only one received a stamp of approval for meeting the expectations of the 2013 guidelines, which encourage critical thinking and hands-on, cross-disciplinary approaches to learning.
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Learning About Climate Change Outside The Classroom
And it’s not only in Texas that teachers feel hamstrung by their textbooks, politics and other concerns around teaching climate change. Climate science is complicated, and many teachers say they don’t have as much knowledge as they’d like to feel confident teaching it.
It wasn’t until Alison Wood, a 10th grade biology teacher in Duluth, Minnesota, attended a multiday teacher training on the subject several years ago – after teaching in her district for 20 years – that she felt armed with the knowledge to effectively teach climate change. The textbooks she received at the time were “super lame,” she said, and the topic wasn’t yet in her state’s standards, so it was often mentioned as an afterthought at the end of the year. She still relies on a hodgepodge of resources rather than textbooks.
“It was one of those topics where it was like, ‘Huh, we ran out of time this year, I guess we didn’t get to it again,’” said Wood. “It’s straightforward to talk about DNA or cells, but to talk about human impact on climate change?”
Young people, meanwhile, are increasingly learning about climate change outside the classroom. And for some of them, the politicization of climate science and the near absence of climate change from their courses and textbooks are frustrating.
Perla Gonzalez, who is finishing her junior year at Mission High School, in South Texas, said she didn’t recall learning much at all about climate change in school – just something about the water cycle in elementary and a little about fracking in middle school.
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“The only way we can learn about the climate and things that are going on is if you on your own decide to do reading or Google or look at the presidential Democratic candidate debates,” she said.
She said that while her teachers are relatively progressive and care about the environment, climate change doesn’t fit into any planned lessons. “We’re not allowed to talk about it in class because it’s not part of the curriculum,” she said. “I would love to see that change.”
Taylor Roberson, a junior at Cypress Creek High School, near Houston, said she thinks Texas’ conservative politics have limited how much she and her classmates can talk about climate change.
“Climate education really isn’t high on the list of a lot of people’s issues with the school system currently,” she said. “It’s never really put to thought, which means it won’t make it into our TEKS, and a lot of teachers, if they don’t see things on the TEKs, then they don’t feel the need to teach it.”
She added: “I 100 percent wish we would learn more about climate change and climate issues in general in our science classes.”
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López, the former middle school teacher in Austin, Texas, moved back to Puerto Rico, where she grew up, in August 2017. She’s now working as an education consultant.
A few weeks after she moved, Hurricane Maria struck, devastating the island. López had witnessed hurricanes in her youth, but she said the recovery was a few weeks, nothing like the months that Puerto Rico spent off the grid in 2017. After the disaster, the high school she graduated from was forced to close, along with hundreds of others.
On the island, López said, climate change and its effects feel omnipresent. It troubles her that many students aren’t getting an opportunity to learn much about it.
“If they don’t have education and they don’t have an understanding of their impact on the environment,” she said, “nothing is going to change.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-23--How The Science Of Vaccination Is Taught (Or Not) In U.S. Schools

The issue , teachers said , feels not only especially urgent now but also comes with increasingly high stakes : In a recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll , nearly 20 % t of respondents said they wouldn ’ t get a coronavirus vaccine if and when it becomes available .
It ’ s an attitude that some teachers said is reflected in their classrooms , passed down to students from their parents at early ages .
Science teachers often receive little guidance on teaching the science of vaccines — the topic is not mentioned in the Next Generation Science Standards ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ standards that have been adopted in 20 states and influenced the standards in 24 others .
At the same time , in recent years confidence in the science of vaccinations has been trending downward — one recent survey shows that the percentage of American adults reporting it is “ very important ” to have their children vaccinated dropped 11 percentage points from 2008 to 2018 .
The NGSS was released in 2013 .
Prior to that , states followed their own unique standards , sometimes causing substantial differences between curricula across state lines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and critical thinking over the recitation of facts .
While many educators say they prefer that approach to older methods of science instruction , use of the standards sometimes means that teachers cover fewer topics as they delve more deeply into those that are discussed .
Heidi Schweingruber , who co-directed the study that resulted in the framework on which NGSS was based , said it offers educators guidance on the big ideas in science .
Viruses and vaccines , “ in terms of grain size , ” did not necessarily rise as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But she said that the standards and framework are “ living documents ” and that viruses and vaccines might be part of discussions on revising the standards .
While viruses and vaccines aren ’ t mentioned explicitly in the NGSS , educators said the subjects are a natural fit for the overarching approach called for in the standards : investigating the world through scientific questions and evidence .
And topics that are listed in the standards , such as DNA , lend themselves to teaching about vaccines , said Mike Fumagalli , principal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a former high school biology teacher .
Kristin Rademaker , an instructional facilitator at the middle school and a science consultant , said that over the years she has heard kids speculate on the safety of vaccines and even debate each other on the topic .
In her district , she recommends that teachers focus on how vaccines work in the context of animals , instead of humans , pointing to such examples as how vaccinating cattle afflicted with a disease called rinderpest helped save not only the lives of the cattle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ buffalo of the Serengeti , who suffered the disease as a “ spillover species.
” Distancing the science of vaccination from its use in people helps even skeptical students understand the science .
Other teachers tackle the controversy head-on .
Lin Andrews , who taught biology for 18 years in Kansas public and private schools , said she would cite the ( now-retracted ) paper suggesting a link between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine in order to show students how bias and poor data can creep into the scientific process .
“ By @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I rarely encountered pushback from parents or students , ” said Andrews , who now serves as director of teacher support at the nonprofit National Center for Science Education .
She said timely and even controversial topics can help ignite students ’ interest , and she ’ s currently developing a lesson plan on the “ nature of science ” that will use the coronavirus as the main theme .
Some teachers rely on resources from the Vaccine Makers Project , a program out of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ project provides materials for teachers to use free of charge .
Charlotte Moser , assistant director of the Vaccine Education Center , said staff at the center created the project about five years ago , after seeing a need in the classroom for additional tools .
Though vaccines are not covered in the NGSS , Moser said she sees a lot of educators — especially those involved in biology and Advanced Placement courses — teaching about them .
Kate Cilluffo teaches biology in Edison , New Jersey , and relies in part on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in addition to making her own and using resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Prior to joining the district , she pursued a doctorate in immunology .
She ’ s currently teaching students about the mutation of viruses and how that relates to vaccines .
She surveyed her students on whether they would want to learn right now about COVID-19 or the flu ; 75 % of students voted for COVID-19 .
Now she ’ s teaching most of her students about vaccines over video through the lens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken a graduate-level course on the science of virology , watched the movie .
She has sought to understand parents ’ fears and why they may be so quick to dismiss the science of vaccinations .
The research has helped her understand their decisions and also provided her with a framework of how she can work to change minds .
Wood teaches about vaccines , with an emphasis on community health , during units on the immune system and basic cell biology .
The Minnesota state science standards specifically call out “ vaccines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immunity , she said .
In class , she conducts a simulation to show the impact of community spread — a topic that feels particularly relevant now .
She then pushes her students to go home and find out if they ’ ve been vaccinated — some students say they have no idea what their parents decided for them .

Illustration: Andrea D’Aquino for HuffPost
This story about climate change and education was produced as part of the nine-part series “Are We Ready? How Schools Are Preparing — and Not Preparing — Children for Climate Change,” reported by HuffPost and The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
When Rebecca Brewer started teaching high school biology 20 years ago, it seemed like everyone trusted science. Teaching topics like the science of vaccinations elicited little controversy. But in the past few years, she’s seen a shift. Now, every year, she reliably has a few students who push back against the topic.
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“Their parents’ opinions make their way into the classroom,” said Brewer, who teaches in Troy, Michigan. “Of course, some students will bring up the idea they’ve heard that there’s a connection between vaccinations and autism.”
The issue, teachers said, feels not only especially urgent now but also comes with increasingly high stakes: In a recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll, nearly 20%t of respondents said they wouldn’t get a coronavirus vaccine if and when it becomes available. It’s an attitude that some teachers said is reflected in their classrooms, passed down to students from their parents at early ages.
“A lot of time they haven’t thought in-depth, they’re teenagers, it’s more so their parents’ decisions … there’s still time we can intervene as science teachers and let them see the evidence and come to their own conclusion,” Brewer said.
Science teachers often receive little guidance on teaching the science of vaccines — the topic is not mentioned in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the national science teaching standards that have been adopted in 20 states and influenced the standards in 24 others. At the same time, in recent years confidence in the science of vaccinations has been trending downward — one recent survey shows that the percentage of American adults reporting it is “very important” to have their children vaccinated dropped 11 percentage points from 2008 to 2018.
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When discussing vaccines, some teachers report having to steer through murky waters. They report having to seek out their own teaching resources on the issue while navigating the uncomfortable space of presenting facts that their students’ families may deeply disagree with.
Brewer uses case studies to teach the science of vaccines; last year she used the example of a 2015 measles outbreak linked to Disneyland. While the NGSS doesn’t specifically say teachers should teach about vaccines, it’s an issue her district has decided to emphasize.
The NGSS was released in 2013. Prior to that, states followed their own unique standards, sometimes causing substantial differences between curricula across state lines. The new standards emphasize scientific inquiry and critical thinking over the recitation of facts. While many educators say they prefer that approach to older methods of science instruction, use of the standards sometimes means that teachers cover fewer topics as they delve more deeply into those that are discussed.
Heidi Schweingruber, who co-directed the study that resulted in the framework on which NGSS was based, said it offers educators guidance on the big ideas in science. Viruses and vaccines, “in terms of grain size,” did not necessarily rise as something to highlight at that level. But she said that the standards and framework are “living documents” and that viruses and vaccines might be part of discussions on revising the standards.
Brewer hopes that after the coronavirus pandemic subsides, there might be a shift in thinking on the topic. She wondered if, maybe then, the standards will be revised in a way that signal “of course this is something the general public needs to understand well.”
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Coronavirus As A Teachable Moment
While viruses and vaccines aren’t mentioned explicitly in the NGSS, educators said the subjects are a natural fit for the overarching approach called for in the standards: investigating the world through scientific questions and evidence. And topics that are listed in the standards, such as DNA, lend themselves to teaching about vaccines, said Mike Fumagalli, principal at Glenn Westlake Middle School in Illinois and a former high school biology teacher.
Kristin Rademaker, an instructional facilitator at the middle school and a science consultant, said that over the years she has heard kids speculate on the safety of vaccines and even debate each other on the topic. In her district, she recommends that teachers focus on how vaccines work in the context of animals, instead of humans, pointing to such examples as how vaccinating cattle afflicted with a disease called rinderpest helped save not only the lives of the cattle but also thousands of the wildebeest and buffalo of the Serengeti, who suffered the disease as a “spillover species.” Distancing the science of vaccination from its use in people helps even skeptical students understand the science.
Other teachers tackle the controversy head-on. Lin Andrews, who taught biology for 18 years in Kansas public and private schools, said she would cite the (now-retracted) paper suggesting a link between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine in order to show students how bias and poor data can creep into the scientific process. “By putting the conversation in this context, I rarely encountered pushback from parents or students,” said Andrews, who now serves as director of teacher support at the nonprofit National Center for Science Education. She said timely and even controversial topics can help ignite students’ interest, and she’s currently developing a lesson plan on the “nature of science” that will use the coronavirus as the main theme.
Some teachers rely on resources from the Vaccine Makers Project, a program out of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The nonprofit project provides materials for teachers to use free of charge. Charlotte Moser, assistant director of the Vaccine Education Center, said staff at the center created the project about five years ago, after seeing a need in the classroom for additional tools. Though vaccines are not covered in the NGSS, Moser said she sees a lot of educators — especially those involved in biology and Advanced Placement courses — teaching about them.
The current pandemic provides a special teachable moment for students and educators.
Kate Cilluffo teaches biology in Edison, New Jersey, and relies in part on the Vaccine Makers Project for materials, in addition to making her own and using resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to joining the district, she pursued a doctorate in immunology. She’s currently teaching students about the mutation of viruses and how that relates to vaccines. She surveyed her students on whether they would want to learn right now about COVID-19 or the flu; 75% of students voted for COVID-19. Now she’s teaching most of her students about vaccines over video through the lens of the pandemic.
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The students are overflowing with questions about when society will reopen, what happens if the virus mutates and what’s going to happen next year. Cilluffo works to update her lessons in real time as new information comes out. She has brought in experts and epidemiologists to chat with her students over video conferences.
She knows some teachers are trying to stay away from COVID-19-related topics right now for fear they could overwhelm students. But she’s seen a real hunger for information in her classroom.
“I tell them that’s how real science works — so much is unknown. When you’re teaching something and you know the answer, it’s not as fun. When you’re teaching something and you don’t know the end result, it feels like real science,” said Cilluffo. “They get to act like scientists and ask the questions.”
The Perils Of Parental Pushback
All 50 states require that students receive vaccinations before starting school. However, 45 states and Washington, D.C., allow for exemptions based on religious beliefs. Fifteen states go a step further, allowing for philosophical exemptions, which means families can forgo immunizations based on moral or personal beliefs.
Minnesota, where 10th grade biology teacher Alison Wood works, is a philosophical exemption state. Some parents in her district have been open about their skepticism of her lessons. Some have explicitly told her about their decision not to vaccinate their children.
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During parent-teacher conferences, she recalled, one parent recommended that Wood watch the movie “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe.” (In 2019, Amazon removed the film from its offerings following criticism from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) that it pushes misleading science linking vaccines to autism.)
Wood, who has taken a graduate-level course on the science of virology, watched the movie. She has sought to understand parents’ fears and why they may be so quick to dismiss the science of vaccinations. The research has helped her understand their decisions and also provided her with a framework of how she can work to change minds.
“They really believe they’re in the right and they’re protecting their kid, and I have to believe they’re smart people, they’re not making this up to be a pain,” said Wood, who teaches in Duluth.
Wood teaches about vaccines, with an emphasis on community health, during units on the immune system and basic cell biology. The Minnesota state science standards specifically call out “vaccines” as one way to teach about immunity, she said. In class, she conducts a simulation to show the impact of community spread — a topic that feels particularly relevant now. She then pushes her students to go home and find out if they’ve been vaccinated — some students say they have no idea what their parents decided for them.
She also lets students know that they can get hepatitis B vaccines if they want, regardless of their parents’ beliefs. In Minnesota, minors can get the vaccination without parental consent.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-23--Coronavirus Is The Practice Run For Schools. But Soon Comes Climate Change.

Like McKneely , some educators , government officials and policy experts around the country say the coronavirus carries lessons for another global crisis of our time , climate change .
So far , the pandemic has revealed the challenges of conducting education remotely as well as uneven access to Wi-Fi and devices such as laptops .
Overcoming those difficulties could equip schools for a future in which severe floods and fires increasingly batter communities and pause in-person education .
The coronavirus could serve as a reminder to educators to reinforce the value of science education and the need for quality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If you ’ re thoughtful about it , ” she said , “ and you really start to think about closing the digital divide , making sure every kid has connectivity and devices , creating the curriculum strategies that are continuous , and helping teachers and other school staff understand what we have to do if schools are closed , then we can be better prepared for these eventualities that are going to become more and more frequent.
” Why Some Florida Districts Were At The Ready In January of this year , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the emerging coronavirus outbreak .
In the weeks that followed , the district surveyed parents about their technology needs , took an inventory of devices such as Chromebooks and Wi-Fi hotspots , and assembled digital learning content under one portal that teachers and students could access easily .
Those efforts allowed the district of 520 schools and educational centers to transition relatively smoothly from traditional learning to distance learning when the school system shut on March 16 , Carvalho said .
By mid-April , about 111,000 devices and 11,000 hotspots had been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % of students are marked as present for remote classes ( meaning they logged in to the online portal ) , which is only a percentage point or two behind school attendance the previous year at this time , Carvalho said .
But even with online learning plans , school districts around the country could face an “ unprecedented historic academic regression ” unless they do more , he said .
To stave off this learning loss , Miami-Dade is adding summer sessions and working to identify vulnerable kids and pair them with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ steps .
In neighboring Broward County , Superintendent Robert Runcie said he had been receiving calls from school administrators in Chicago , Los Angeles and elsewhere , asking for advice on distance learning .
Like Miami-Dade , the Broward system was able to quickly ramp up remote learning in part because of provisions it had put in place in the event of hurricanes .
The coronavirus offers an opportunity to rethink how education is delivered in ways that could make school systems nimbler and more effective in serving students going forward , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ waste a crisis , ” he said .
At Hall Middle School , in nearby Marin County , science teacher Rebecca Newburn said the disruptions to learning have forced her to streamline lessons and prioritize the content and skills that are most important .
“ Some things are going to get less attention this year , ” she said , but “ climate change is still super significant.
” Her students are learning to cite evidence in making arguments , a skill that seems even more relevant now as the two global crises @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dangers of ignoring science and facts .
She ’ s also trying to ensure that her kids are mentally resilient by taking breaks from learning to check in on their well-being and to process feelings .
“ This is going to be an ongoing challenge , ” Newburn said of the health and environmental issues that disrupt education .
“ Our curriculum and our schools are going to get disrupted multiple times , and the more we can be thoughtful and proactive about how we approach those disruptions and providing more stability and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better off we are all going to be.
” But In The South ... After living through Hurricane Katrina , McKneely , the charter school network CEO , knew to make student and staff mental health his first priority .
The first thing he did upon learning that schools would close because of the coronavirus was to establish phone contact with families and set up phone lines with social workers so that parents and kids felt informed and supported .
“ What we learned from Katrina is that our students experienced a bunch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ It was the trauma of the new norm , of not being able to go to school , to see their classmates , their teachers .
We wanted to deal with that first.
” His schools are high-need , with more than 95 % of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch , a federal measure of poverty .
McKneely quickly discovered that the share of families who lacked Wi-Fi , laptops and other tools necessary to participate in remote learning was even greater than anticipated — some 40 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Schools , provided some Chromebooks and hotspots that the school operator distributed to families .
But because of funding , logistical and other challenges , only about 28 % of those in need have received the equipment so far .
InspireNOLA also began trying to get teachers at all levels acquainted with the learning platform Google Classroom , which it had previously used for high school .
Now , McKneely said , his schools are trying to figure out a long-term plan for learning through emergencies .
They are determining how they might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s education — grading , social and emotional support , staff calls , lessons — online .
When schools reopen , they might do so with a different schedule : four days a week of in-person education and one virtual day , for example .
McKneely said he wants all his students to be accustomed to learning outside a school ’ s walls in the event of a second wave of the coronavirus or another Katrina .
What Experts Say We Need For Distance Learning

Illustration: JooHee Yoon for HuffPost
This story about climate change and education was produced as part of the nine-part series “Are We Ready? How Schools Are Preparing — and Not Preparing — Children for Climate Change,” reported by HuffPost and The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
On the eve of each hurricane season, Jamar McKneely worries that this one will bring the next Katrina. McKneely was a teacher at Edna Karr High School in New Orleans when the 2005 hurricane devastated the city and closed his school for months.
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But instead of a deadly hurricane, this year brought another crisis that shut the city’s school system: the coronavirus pandemic. McKneely, who now leads InspireNOLA Charter Schools, is trying to use this latest emergency to prepare for future natural disasters and disease outbreaks that are worsening due to climate change. His schools have been scrambling to set up online learning, connect students with virtual counseling and get laptops into the hands of families — steps McKneely says will be invaluable if another hurricane disrupts education.
“We are building all of that now to make sure we’re better prepared,” he said. “For us it might be the coronavirus or the next epidemic, but it could easily be the next hurricane as well.”
Like McKneely, some educators, government officials and policy experts around the country say the coronavirus carries lessons for another global crisis of our time, climate change. So far, the pandemic has revealed the challenges of conducting education remotely as well as uneven access to Wi-Fi and devices such as laptops. Overcoming those difficulties could equip schools for a future in which severe floods and fires increasingly batter communities and pause in-person education. The coronavirus could serve as a reminder to educators to reinforce the value of science education and the need for quality mental health services for kids.
School leaders “should be keenly aware that this is not just a one-time thing,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the nonprofit Learning Policy Institute and of California’s State Board of Education.
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“If you’re thoughtful about it,” she said, “and you really start to think about closing the digital divide, making sure every kid has connectivity and devices, creating the curriculum strategies that are continuous, and helping teachers and other school staff understand what we have to do if schools are closed, then we can be better prepared for these eventualities that are going to become more and more frequent.”
Why Some Florida Districts Were At The Ready
Perhaps no school system had a distance learning plan in place that anticipated a shutdown on the scale of the coronavirus closures. But some places were more prepared than others. When Darling-Hammond looked around recently for school districts with online education plans that California might learn from, hurricane- and flood-prone districts in southern Florida stood out, she said.
The Miami-Dade school district, for example, adopted a plan back in 2012 to close the digital divide. It was initially designed to “obliterate digital deserts,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, but the plan has also helped position the district to keep learning going amid disruptions like the flooding that routinely submerges parts of Miami.
“Because we are a coastal community prone to hurricanes, a coastal community prone to the arrival of literally dozens of thousands of children, immigrants,” Carvalho said, “we have naturally adapted to dealing with crises whether they are human crises, environmental crises or health crises.”
In January of this year, Carvalho told staff to keep an eye on the emerging coronavirus outbreak. In the weeks that followed, the district surveyed parents about their technology needs, took an inventory of devices such as Chromebooks and Wi-Fi hotspots, and assembled digital learning content under one portal that teachers and students could access easily. Those efforts allowed the district of 520 schools and educational centers to transition relatively smoothly from traditional learning to distance learning when the school system shut on March 16, Carvalho said.
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By mid-April, about 111,000 devices and 11,000 hotspots had been distributed, he said. Approximately 92% of students are marked as present for remote classes (meaning they logged in to the online portal), which is only a percentage point or two behind school attendance the previous year at this time, Carvalho said. But even with online learning plans, school districts around the country could face an “unprecedented historic academic regression” unless they do more, he said. To stave off this learning loss, Miami-Dade is adding summer sessions and working to identify vulnerable kids and pair them with virtual tutors and mentors, among other steps.
In neighboring Broward County, Superintendent Robert Runcie said he had been receiving calls from school administrators in Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere, asking for advice on distance learning. Like Miami-Dade, the Broward system was able to quickly ramp up remote learning in part because of provisions it had put in place in the event of hurricanes. The coronavirus offers an opportunity to rethink how education is delivered in ways that could make school systems nimbler and more effective in serving students going forward, according to Runcie. “They say never waste a crisis,” he said.
Forest Fires Are Prompting California To Rethink Strategies
Across the country, in California, worsening fires, floods and droughts have forced some educators to contemplate a school calendar marked by natural disasters. Half of the 20 most destructive wildfires in state history have occurred since 2015. In the 2018 school year, roughly 1 in every 5 California school children missed at least one day because of a natural disaster, school maintenance issue, shooting or other emergency, according to an analysis by CalMatters.
That doesn’t mean that school districts were up to speed on distance learning, however. When schools closed for the coronavirus, an estimated 1.2 million kids statewide lacked access to Wi-Fi and computers. As of mid-April, schools had distributed supplies to meet about half of that need, said Darling-Hammond.
In Occidental, California, Matthew Morgan, superintendent of the Harmony Union School District, said the pandemic has exposed a big digital divide and online learning was slow to roll out. “We don’t have a distance learning plan that is operating on all cylinders,” he said in April.
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But filling those gaps, he said, could help if poor air quality from wildfires keeps kids from going to school. That’s been a reality the last few years. Sonoma County, where Harmony is located, has been pummeled by fires in recent years. The 2017 Tubbs Fire caused evacuations and killed more than 20 people in the county. Smoke from the deadly 2018 Camp Fire, which leveled the town of Paradise 200 miles north, compromised air quality in Sonoma. And last fall, the Kincade Fire forced the largest evacuation in Sonoma County history.
In other ways, the district is drawing on its experiences living through emergencies. The close relationships Harmony forged with local government agencies because of wildfires helped it keep families and staff informed as the coronavirus spread, he said.
At Hall Middle School, in nearby Marin County, science teacher Rebecca Newburn said the disruptions to learning have forced her to streamline lessons and prioritize the content and skills that are most important. “Some things are going to get less attention this year,” she said, but “climate change is still super significant.” Her students are learning to cite evidence in making arguments, a skill that seems even more relevant now as the two global crises of coronavirus and climate change underscore the dangers of ignoring science and facts. She’s also trying to ensure that her kids are mentally resilient by taking breaks from learning to check in on their well-being and to process feelings.
“This is going to be an ongoing challenge,” Newburn said of the health and environmental issues that disrupt education. “Our curriculum and our schools are going to get disrupted multiple times, and the more we can be thoughtful and proactive about how we approach those disruptions and providing more stability and support for students, I think the better off we are all going to be.”
But In The South ...
In the hurricane-prone Gulf, lessons from past disasters have helped schools think differently about which of their students’ needs to prioritize. But more work needs to be done to shrink the digital divide.
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After living through Hurricane Katrina, McKneely, the charter school network CEO, knew to make student and staff mental health his first priority. The first thing he did upon learning that schools would close because of the coronavirus was to establish phone contact with families and set up phone lines with social workers so that parents and kids felt informed and supported. “What we learned from Katrina is that our students experienced a bunch of separation, of loss,” he said. “It was the trauma of the new norm, of not being able to go to school, to see their classmates, their teachers. We wanted to deal with that first.”
Loss came quickly: On April 2, a beloved football coach at McDonogh 35, which is part of the charter school network, died of the coronavirus. The school held calls with staff members and students, arranged counseling hotlines and extended spring break to give families time to cope.
On the academic front, InspireNOLA schools were less prepared, McKneely said. They had a short-term plan in place: hand out homework packets to students of the sort that the schools provide over holidays. But there was no long-term plan, McKneely said. “We’re still learning how to fly as we’re flying,” he said.
His schools are high-need, with more than 95% of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, a federal measure of poverty. McKneely quickly discovered that the share of families who lacked Wi-Fi, laptops and other tools necessary to participate in remote learning was even greater than anticipated — some 40%. The school district, NOLA Public Schools, provided some Chromebooks and hotspots that the school operator distributed to families. But because of funding, logistical and other challenges, only about 28% of those in need have received the equipment so far. InspireNOLA also began trying to get teachers at all levels acquainted with the learning platform Google Classroom, which it had previously used for high school.
Now, McKneely said, his schools are trying to figure out a long-term plan for learning through emergencies. They are determining how they might transition all aspects of the school’s education — grading, social and emotional support, staff calls, lessons — online. When schools reopen, they might do so with a different schedule: four days a week of in-person education and one virtual day, for example. McKneely said he wants all his students to be accustomed to learning outside a school’s walls in the event of a second wave of the coronavirus or another Katrina.
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Going forward, McKneely worries about not just another deadly hurricane, but another coronavirus outbreak before a vaccine is developed. But he has reasons for hope, recalling “how we came together to rebuild our city” after Katrina. He added: “I hope the same camaraderie, passion and commitment can be made to our students’ families to make sure their sense of normalcy as well as their advancement continues.”
What Experts Say We Need For Distance Learning
It’s hard to know exactly what distance learning might look like a few years from now, said Sujata Bhatt, a senior fellow with Transcend, a nonprofit that works with school systems to improve how they deliver education. Schools are still scrambling simply to cope with the immediate coronavirus crisis and meet students’ basic needs, she said, but the next school year could present opportunities to rethink how remote learning happens.
One big step forward would be universal broadband access, said Lillian Pace, vice president of policy and advocacy with the nonprofit KnowledgeWorks. Another is making sure teachers receive training on distance learning, through programs that prepare them for the profession as well as through ongoing professional development. “It’s going to have to be built in as a new baseline of entry into the profession,” said Pace.
Education systems will also have to adjust how they assess students and schools. Measures like seat time and attendance just won’t work the same way in a world facing so much disruption. Instead, we could see a shift toward evaluating students based on whether they’ve mastered certain skills, said Katherine Prince, senior vice president of strategic foresight with KnowledgeWorks. And schools will need to find ways to prioritize kids’ emotional and social well-being, she said, and provide them with the sense of working collaboratively with peers even when they’re stuck at home.
David Cook, who leads the Division of Innovation within the Kentucky Department of Education, has been working since 2011 to find ways to keep kids learning through snowstorms and floods. (Notably, climate change could reduce snowfall in the state but worsen flooding.)
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Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, 82 of the state’s school districts had in place a “nontraditional education” plan by which teachers prepared lessons that kids could access remotely if needed. Since March, the program has expanded to all of the state’s 172 districts. Now Cook is studying how to revise the program given that school closures of the future are likely to last weeks and months, not days. Whatever happens with this current crisis, Cook said, distance learning seems poised to be a bigger part of education going forward.
“The notion of everything happening in a building between 8 and 3,” he said, “is probably not something we’re going to go completely back to.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-23--When The Waters Rise, How Will We Keep Schools Open?

CHAUVIN , La .
— Izzy Allen , 13 , has watched gas stations and grocery stores close .
She ’ s seen vines grow over abandoned homes while other houses have been lifted on stilts , 10 or 15 feet off the ground .
She remembers that her father , a shrimper , used to have to inch his boat carefully away from the dock behind their house so as not to hit the bayou ’ s narrow banks .
The land has disappeared at such a rapid clip that he can pull it out easily now , even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The eighth grader can also remember each of the kids she began school with back at Boudreaux Canal Elementary School .
“ All the teachers , all the kids , knew everybody ’ s name , ” she recalled on a recent Friday afternoon .
But that school closed after she finished first grade in 2013 , a victim of declining enrollment after relentless flooding and job losses drove families from the area .
The elementary she went to next , Upper Little Caillou , had replaced another nearby school that had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years earlier .
Like many of her students at Lacache , English teacher Summer Skarke can trace her family here back generations .
One winter Friday inside her classroom in the two-story brick school building , Skarke was facilitating a discussion with her eighth grade students about the short story “ The Lady , or the Tiger ?
” — an allegory about making a difficult decision between two unknowns .
In Skarke ’ s bright , colorful classroom , students who couldn ’ t find a place at one of the crowded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a corner .
Skarke let one student work at her own desk while she walked around the room , checking students ’ work and giving out heart-shaped cookies to celebrate Valentine ’ s Day .
Teachers and administrators are having to scrimp because fewer students means less per-pupil funding ( $ 9,420 per student in Terrebonne Parish ) .
Losing four or five students can make a dent in the budget equivalent to one teacher ’ s salary .
School enrollment in the Parish has dropped from more than 19,000 in 2008 to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet , as school administrators are quick to point out , most costs remain the same .
“ If you have a school bus going down street A picking up 50 kids , and 25 kids move , you still have that same school bus , but just picking up 25 kids , ” explained Philip Martin , superintendent of Terrebonne Parish schools .
“ It ’ s resulted in a much more challenging financial environment for us.
” Such financial challenges threaten schools when their populations are at their highest need .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Data Center , a New Orleans-based research organization , noted that climate migration tends to leave the poor behind .
“ The poor often don ’ t have the resources to be able to leave .
They don ’ t have extended social networks , family and friends , that can help them resettle elsewhere , ” Plyer said .
“ They don ’ t have money in the bank , and moving costs money .
When middle-income people leave , they often take a loss on their house — that ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s a choice fewer and fewer people in the parish can afford to make .
The number of people receiving food stamp benefits grew in Terrebonne Parish from less than 15,000 in 2007 to 23,000 in 2017 .
“ They ’ re coming from a place where they ’ re trying to survive , and I ’ m asking them to learn , and ‘ Hey , you ’ re going to go to college ’ and all that , ” she said .
But circumstances prevent many from learning .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they didn ’ t sleep at home , or [ they ] come to school to eat , ” she said .
Lanigan increasingly sees her students living with extended family , doubled up in cramped homes .
At fundraisers , the school can barely eke out a few thousand dollars from cash-strapped parents , she said .
Boudreaux ’ s one-story white wooden building still stands empty along a boat-lined canal that drains into the Gulf just a few miles south .
It closed in 2013 when the enrollment dropped from 127 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ People [ are ] trying to not live much in the low-lying areas for several reasons : flooding , the potential hurricane damage , and the high cost of insurance to live there .
It ’ s really just not financially feasible to run a school for just 87 kids , ” said Martin , the district superintendent .
Students who ’ ve remained in communities down the bayou often struggle to keep up when flooded roads keep them out of school for days at a time .
“ Whether or not they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it up depends on how long they ’ re out , ” said Darrell Dillard , principal at Ellender Memorial High School .
The school is in Houma , the southernmost city in Terrebonne , where the swollen bayous — the five fingers , as people call them — converge .
“ I do see an effect .
They ’ re losing time , instructional time.
” Around the country , school funding formulas tied to property taxes and enrollment threaten to exacerbate the challenges of disaster-hit communities .
“ It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because the fewer schools , the less attractive it ’ s going to be to families and there will be less ability to even do the infrastructure to do any decent adaption or hazard mitigation , ” said Patrick Marchman , a hazard mitigation planner for Michael Baker International , an engineering consulting firm .
“ When you fund things in the tax structures that we have right now , this is what ’ s going to happen .
It ’ s one of those things that our systems are not super well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , school administrators said that an empty site the district recently purchased farther up the bayou could house a new school building if the current trends continue .
“ In the long range of things , I think we ’ re going to continue to have a population shift to higher elevation , ” said Jack Moore , Terrebonne Parish school district ’ s risk manager .
“ If it goes far enough , we ’ ll abandon more schools — those that were subject to flooding , and the population leaves.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wants to talk about .
“ If you speak to anyone in those communities , the last thing they want to see leave is their school , ” said Moore .

Illustration: Dadu Shin for HuffPost
This story about climate change and education was produced as part of the nine-part series “Are We Ready? How Schools Are Preparing — and Not Preparing — Children for Climate Change,” reported by HuffPost and The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
CHAUVIN, La. — Izzy Allen, 13, has watched gas stations and grocery stores close. She’s seen vines grow over abandoned homes while other houses have been lifted on stilts, 10 or 15 feet off the ground. She remembers that her father, a shrimper, used to have to inch his boat carefully away from the dock behind their house so as not to hit the bayou’s narrow banks. The land has disappeared at such a rapid clip that he can pull it out easily now, even when another boat is passing behind his.
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The eighth grader can also remember each of the kids she began school with back at Boudreaux Canal Elementary School. “All the teachers, all the kids, knew everybody’s name,” she recalled on a recent Friday afternoon. But that school closed after she finished first grade in 2013, a victim of declining enrollment after relentless flooding and job losses drove families from the area. The elementary she went to next, Upper Little Caillou, had replaced another nearby school that had shuttered for the same reasons a few years earlier.
Lacache Middle School, which Izzy currently attends, sits along the bayou on one of the lowest-lying tips of Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish. Every year, she loses classmates who move farther inland or to Texas. It’s a scenario playing out across coastal Louisiana and in other areas of the country vulnerable to floods and storms that are worsening because of climate change.
Izzy Allen and her classmates stay after class in Summer Skarke's eighth-grade classroom. Sophie Kasakove for The Hechinger Report
As sea level rise drives more people to seek higher ground — a phenomenon sometimes known as “climate migration” — those who remain will be increasingly left to make do with less. Hampered by school funding formulas based on property tax dollars and student enrollment, these schools are already being forced to cut teaching positions and scrimp on materials and technology. Schools farther inland, meanwhile, are under pressure to accommodate arriving students — forced to increase class sizes and provide support for transient students who lose learning time with each move.
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With at least 6,444 schools serving almost 4 million students located in parts of the country at high risk of flooding, it’s a set of challenges that’s only going to become more common. At Lacache, the question is already pressing: When families start leaving the areas on the front lines of climate change, what kind of education — and future — remains for those who stay?
Like many of her students at Lacache, English teacher Summer Skarke can trace her family here back generations. One winter Friday inside her classroom in the two-story brick school building, Skarke was facilitating a discussion with her eighth grade students about the short story “The Lady, or the Tiger?” — an allegory about making a difficult decision between two unknowns. In Skarke’s bright, colorful classroom, students who couldn’t find a place at one of the crowded desks sat instead on chairs clustered in a corner. Skarke let one student work at her own desk while she walked around the room, checking students’ work and giving out heart-shaped cookies to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Since Skarke began teaching at Lacache in 1999, the number of students has fallen by almost a quarter to 387. But the number of teachers has declined more precipitously, she said. There are three eighth grade teachers today, compared to eight when she started, and the vast majority of classrooms now have more than 21 students.
“You have more kids in a class with less teachers, and you have teachers teaching subjects that they’re not 100 percent at,” said Skarke. Teachers double up on subjects — one of her colleagues teaches social studies and science in one 90-minute block.
Lacache Middle School in Chauvin, Louisiana, loses students each year as their families move to less flood-prone areas. Sophie Kasakove for The Hechinger Report
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Teachers and administrators are having to scrimp because fewer students means less per-pupil funding ($9,420 per student in Terrebonne Parish). Losing four or five students can make a dent in the budget equivalent to one teacher’s salary. School enrollment in the Parish has dropped from more than 19,000 in 2008 to around 17,200 early this year. And yet, as school administrators are quick to point out, most costs remain the same. “If you have a school bus going down street A picking up 50 kids, and 25 kids move, you still have that same school bus, but just picking up 25 kids,” explained Philip Martin, superintendent of Terrebonne Parish schools. “It’s resulted in a much more challenging financial environment for us.”
Such financial challenges threaten schools when their populations are at their highest need. Allison Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center, a New Orleans-based research organization, noted that climate migration tends to leave the poor behind. “The poor often don’t have the resources to be able to leave. They don’t have extended social networks, family and friends, that can help them resettle elsewhere,” Plyer said. “They don’t have money in the bank, and moving costs money. When middle-income people leave, they often take a loss on their house — that’s a choice they can make.” It’s a choice fewer and fewer people in the parish can afford to make. The number of people receiving food stamp benefits grew in Terrebonne Parish from less than 15,000 in 2007 to 23,000 in 2017.
The decline of the area’s industries is a big factor, too. The BP oil spill in 2010 brought the seafood industry, already flagging due to coastal erosion, to a near standstill. The area has lost thousands more jobs since mid-2014, when plummeting oil prices sparked layoffs. Since the bust began, nearly one of every four people in the labor force have left Terrebonne and Lafourche or stopped looking for work, according to a Houma Today analysis of data from the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
At Lacache, “what you have left over is a very poverty-stricken population,” said Principal Mark Thibodeaux. “You don’t have a lot of affluent families living out here anymore, they’ve all moved further north.”
The heightened concentration of poverty has made it challenging to teach, said computer lab instructor Simonne Lanigan, as a group of students lingered to get a last few minutes of screen time in the lab while bus numbers were called over the loudspeaker.
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Along the Grand Caillou bayou in Dulac. Sophie Kasakove for The Hechinger Report
“They’re coming from a place where they’re trying to survive, and I’m asking them to learn, and ‘Hey, you’re going to go to college’ and all that,” she said. But circumstances prevent many from learning. “They need to sleep in class because they didn’t sleep at home, or [they] come to school to eat,” she said. Lanigan increasingly sees her students living with extended family, doubled up in cramped homes. At fundraisers, the school can barely eke out a few thousand dollars from cash-strapped parents, she said.
As schools have retreated from the coast, Lanigan has moved up the bayou with them. She started at Little Caillou and remembers spending days after each storm cleaning out her flood-soaked classroom. She moved with her students to Boudreaux Canal after four destructive hurricanes in a row finally shut that school down. So she wasn’t surprised when Boudreaux Canal closed, too.
Boudreaux’s one-story white wooden building still stands empty along a boat-lined canal that drains into the Gulf just a few miles south. It closed in 2013 when the enrollment dropped from 127 to 87 within five years. “People [are] trying to not live much in the low-lying areas for several reasons: flooding, the potential hurricane damage, and the high cost of insurance to live there. It’s really just not financially feasible to run a school for just 87 kids,” said Martin, the district superintendent.
Students who’ve remained in communities down the bayou often struggle to keep up when flooded roads keep them out of school for days at a time. “Whether or not they’re able to make all of it up depends on how long they’re out,” said Darrell Dillard, principal at Ellender Memorial High School. The school is in Houma, the southernmost city in Terrebonne, where the swollen bayous — the five fingers, as people call them — converge. “I do see an effect. They’re losing time, instructional time.”
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The emerging cycle of population loss, economic strain and collapsing services prompted the state last year to suggest in its regional adaptation strategy that bolder steps might be necessary. “[The state] cannot continue to rebuild in place and in replication of what previously existed,” planners wrote. In some parts of the state, schools are becoming the first to enact the plan.
Little Caillou Elementary in Chauvin, Louisiana, closed in 2007 due to population declines. Sophie Kasakove for The Hechinger Report
Around the country, school funding formulas tied to property taxes and enrollment threaten to exacerbate the challenges of disaster-hit communities. “It’s going to be sort of a spiral because the fewer schools, the less attractive it’s going to be to families and there will be less ability to even do the infrastructure to do any decent adaption or hazard mitigation,” said Patrick Marchman, a hazard mitigation planner for Michael Baker International, an engineering consulting firm. “When you fund things in the tax structures that we have right now, this is what’s going to happen. It’s one of those things that our systems are not super well designed to handle.”
Some states have created stopgap measures to help. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a budget bill in 2019 that allocated money to “backfill” property tax losses in communities affected by wildfires. Other states, like Iowa and Texas, have granted schools experiencing enrollment declines a grace year before funding follows suit. After that, though, many school districts are on their own.
Mike Wells, superintendent of the Hamburg Community School District, in Iowa, and principal of the district’s K-8 school, saw the enrollment of his school drop from 227 to 199 students in the 2019-20 school year, the first year after historic flooding submerged the area. Next year, his district will lose $200,000 in funding, forcing him to reduce staffing and possibly combine classes. “That second year, you drop off a cliff,” he said. “The state has no solutions that really help us.”
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Superintendent Bill Husfelt of Bay District Schools, in Panama City, Florida, has been fighting to get more money from the state. The district received $12 million in state money after Hurricane Michael devastated the area in 2018, shrinking the student population by about 10 percent. But Husfelt said that money won’t solve the district’s problems: So much property was destroyed in the storm that the tax base has eroded and people have nowhere to live. Husfelt was forced to close or consolidate five schools.
Many houses in Chauvin, Louisiana, are elevated to guard against flooding. Sophie Kasakove for The Hechinger Report
These trends demand forward-thinking planning that communities are so far failing to do, argued Rachel Cleetus, policy director with the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “People in some cases will have to be on the move and we need to be investing in where they’ll go — making sure there are jobs and schools and all the infrastructure that’s needed,” she said. “If we don’t invest ahead of time in receiving communities, you’ll get a backlash.”
In Terrebonne Parish, school administrators said that an empty site the district recently purchased farther up the bayou could house a new school building if the current trends continue. “In the long range of things, I think we’re going to continue to have a population shift to higher elevation,” said Jack Moore, Terrebonne Parish school district’s risk manager. “If it goes far enough, we’ll abandon more schools — those that were subject to flooding, and the population leaves.” But it’s not something anyone wants to talk about. “If you speak to anyone in those communities, the last thing they want to see leave is their school,” said Moore.
In rural areas like Terrebonne, he noted, generations of families pass through a school’s halls. Schools don’t just serve to educate students; they are often the only community center. And the population effects, Moore said, cut both ways. “(It’s) almost like a death spiral: Once you lose your school, you lose your population as well,” he said.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-23--Teaching Among The Ashes: ‘It’s Not Just Your House That Burned, It’s Everyone’s’

The Camp Fire incinerated Sperske ’ s house , the homes of most of her friends and her town of Paradise .
It also left her anguished and angry .
After the fire , she hated going to the “ airport school , ” the nickname for the temporary school space in an office building beside the town ’ s tiny airport .
Flimsy foam dividers separated the classrooms , and it was hard to concentrate .
Sperske got one of her first Bs , cried most days and could barely motivate herself to study .
A year and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fire in California history , students are coping with the psychological consequences of living through a megadisaster that sent them running for their lives .
Apathy , anxiety and depression are up , educators here say , along with rates of parental alcoholism , drug abuse and divorce .
Some kids still live in travel trailers and tents or make long commutes from towns 30 miles away .
It ’ s a collective post-traumatic stress that has turned teachers into counselors and counselors into fire-trauma specialists and left students despondent and disconnected from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a fleet of a dozen counselors who came out of retirement to help after the fire , spent much of the year visiting classrooms , meeting individually with students and helping them process the fire ’ s aftermath .
He uses humor and art to connect with them .
Eckhart keeps a drawing of a firetruck in his office .
The student who drew it after the disaster obsessively researched fire departments and found calm in creating the image of the truck as a symbol of safety .
Teachers here say the fire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Marsters , who has taught science at Paradise High School for 23 years , said that after the disaster , her advanced biology class was determined to stay focused on the AP exam .
But the rest of her kids had a difficult time with the basics .
“ It ’ s really hard to actively participate in learning when you are living in shelters , you ’ re living in friends ’ houses , on couches , you are in hotels , you ’ re driving 45 minutes .
They were very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tried to make lessons as engaging as possible to give them some relief .
But she taught more slowly than before , and even now she doesn ’ t get through as much material as she did pre-fire .
Before every class , she reads the room for signs of anxiousness and depression , for sleepless students and kids who might be newly homeless .
On a recent morning , her 10th graders were discussing “ Fahrenheit 451 , ” the dystopian Ray Bradbury novel of an America in which books are banned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Krulder had been teaching the book when the Camp Fire hit , and she ’ d been reluctant to return to it because of the fire imagery , but her students insisted .
On this day , she asked them to write the book ’ s themes on index cards and build small sculptures representing those themes from pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks .
“ I am just scared , ” said Sabine Wolpert , a seventh grader at Salmon Creek Charter School in Occidental , California , which has been touched by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I can ’ t really tell what my future is , what my future will look like , or how predictable it is , or how much I can trust the people who have the power to take the necessary actions or if it ’ s worth getting an education or learning things for the future if we ’ re on this path.
” What Paradise will look like in the future remains a big question .
Some are hopeful that the town will rebound .
Next to Paradise High School @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a testament to the close-knit nature of the town that keeps some wanting to return .
Tom Taylor , the school district superintendent , said he ’ s spoken with other districts that have survived disasters and that , based on those conversations , he expects the student body will grow slightly in a few years .

Illustration: Sarah Mazzetti for HuffPost
This story about climate change and education was produced as part of the nine-part series “Are We Ready? How Schools Are Preparing — and Not Preparing — Children for Climate Change,” reported by HuffPost and The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
PARADISE, Calif. — The sky was a bright orange, betraying the likelihood of a small wildfire of the sort that occasionally flares near this town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. But 11th grader Hannah Sperske was more worried about a chemistry test later that day, so she stuffed flashcards in her pocket and drove to school.
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Sperske never made it to class that morning of Nov. 8, 2018. When she arrived at Paradise High School, a campus of low-slung concrete buildings shaded by tall pines, her principal was yelling at kids to evacuate as embers the diameter of baseballs fell from the sky.
The Camp Fire incinerated Sperske’s house, the homes of most of her friends and her town of Paradise. It also left her anguished and angry. After the fire, she hated going to the “airport school,” the nickname for the temporary school space in an office building beside the town’s tiny airport. Flimsy foam dividers separated the classrooms, and it was hard to concentrate. Sperske got one of her first Bs, cried most days and could barely motivate herself to study.
“It was really weird to go from being the smartest person in my class and putting in the most effort to feeling dumb all the time, and unmotivated and not wanting to do anything,” Sperske said. “It was a 180 turn.”
A burned neighborhood in Paradise, California, on Nov. 15, 2018. JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images
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A year and a half after the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history, students are coping with the psychological consequences of living through a megadisaster that sent them running for their lives. Apathy, anxiety and depression are up, educators here say, along with rates of parental alcoholism, drug abuse and divorce. Some kids still live in travel trailers and tents or make long commutes from towns 30 miles away. It’s a collective post-traumatic stress that has turned teachers into counselors and counselors into fire-trauma specialists and left students despondent and disconnected from learning.
“It’s not just your house that burned, it’s everyone’s,” said Hilary Ervin, a special education teacher who was raised in Paradise and whose grandparents opened a furniture store here in the 1950s. “As a mom, I want to fix it. As a teacher, I want to fix it. But I can’t. I can’t give them a house. I can gather certain items, but I just can’t make everything better for everybody … I think it’s going to affect the town for a very long time.”
This sort of crisis is one that more school districts may experience as climate change elevates the risks of deadly wildfires, hurricanes, flooding and other extreme weather. In California, seven of the 10 most destructive fires on record have occurred since 2015. In Paradise, although fires had hit the town before, in 2018 the drier climate and high winds helped turn a blaze ignited by power lines into a catastrophic disaster that killed at least 86 people and left thousands homeless.
After a natural disaster like the Camp Fire, rates of post-traumatic stress typically rise from 5% to 20%, although they can surge as high as 90%, depending on who is studied and how, says Elizabeth Haase, a psychiatrist who examines the psychological effects of climate change.
The campus of Paradise High School, which was damaged in the Camp Fire but survived. Caroline Preston
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Eric Eckhart, part of a fleet of a dozen counselors who came out of retirement to help after the fire, spent much of the year visiting classrooms, meeting individually with students and helping them process the fire’s aftermath. He uses humor and art to connect with them. Eckhart keeps a drawing of a firetruck in his office. The student who drew it after the disaster obsessively researched fire departments and found calm in creating the image of the truck as a symbol of safety.
“I have never worked in a situation where the collective stress level has been this high or this acute,” said Eckhart, who had retired in 2016 after 24 years with the district.
In 2019, Paradise was left with about 1,700 students, compared with 3,400 before the fire, but even with fewer students, it has been struggling to help kids cope with basic needs. In addition to bringing back retired counselors and training them in trauma, district and county leaders have organized a committee on teacher mental health and begun to offer mindfulness exercises for younger kids.
Before the Camp Fire, Butte County, where Paradise is located, had among the highest poverty rates of any county in the state. The wildfire further destabilized families and left them fighting with insurance companies and hunting for jobs after their workplaces burned down.
All around town, signs for wiped-out businesses — the House of Hair, the Health Mart, Paradise Inn — rise like gravestones. Only one of the district’s nine schools survived unscathed.
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Teachers here say the fire transformed the way they teach. Wendy Marsters, who has taught science at Paradise High School for 23 years, said that after the disaster, her advanced biology class was determined to stay focused on the AP exam. But the rest of her kids had a difficult time with the basics. “It’s really hard to actively participate in learning when you are living in shelters, you’re living in friends’ houses, on couches, you are in hotels, you’re driving 45 minutes. They were very shellshocked,” she said. She tried to make lessons as engaging as possible to give them some relief. But she taught more slowly than before, and even now she doesn’t get through as much material as she did pre-fire. Before every class, she reads the room for signs of anxiousness and depression, for sleepless students and kids who might be newly homeless.
Wendy Marsters, who has taught science in Paradise for 23 years, works out of the temporary facility the high school moved into after the Camp Fire. Courtesy Wendy Marsters
On the first anniversary of the fire, rather than sticking to the lesson plan, Marsters decided that students would watch Bob Ross videos and paint.
Jori Krulder, an English teacher at the school for 17 years, said she sees more Ds and Fs than ever before. But now she’s happy if a kid who has been withdrawn engages with an essay, even if the writing is off-topic and doesn’t stick to the assignment.
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On a recent morning, her 10th graders were discussing “Fahrenheit 451,” the dystopian Ray Bradbury novel of an America in which books are banned and “firemen” burn them. Krulder had been teaching the book when the Camp Fire hit, and she’d been reluctant to return to it because of the fire imagery, but her students insisted. On this day, she asked them to write the book’s themes on index cards and build small sculptures representing those themes from pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks.
They wrote things like, “Burning our way into destruction, if you burn away society, that destruction will take you with it,” and “Being awakened and seeing reality is important when there’s certain propaganda being spread.”
A natural disaster is just one way that climate change can produce emotional harms, mental health professionals say. Heatwaves and air pollution contribute to brain inflammation that’s associated with higher levels of depression, behavioral disorders and other illnesses. And simply being aware of the warming climate and anticipating its consequences can provoke anxiety and grief, what some psychologists describe as “pre-traumatic stress disorder.”
“There’s children’s distress about this, [that] they are living in a world that’s going to get worse, not better, that adults have betrayed them and not provided for them,” said Haase, who serves on the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, a group that is trying to help people cope.
English teacher Jori Krulder was teaching “Fahrenheit 451” when the Camp Fire hit. She was hesitant to return to the book because of the fire imagery, but her students insisted. Courtesy Jori Krulder
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She likens this aspect of children’s experience of climate change to one common to victims of child abuse: Adults who dither and deny the climate crisis are akin to enablers, ignoring a dark secret and leaving kids with no one to trust. Young people might respond by shutting down, lashing out or becoming depressed, she said.
“I am just scared,” said Sabine Wolpert, a seventh grader at Salmon Creek Charter School in Occidental, California, which has been touched by three fires and major flooding since 2017. “I can’t really tell what my future is, what my future will look like, or how predictable it is, or how much I can trust the people who have the power to take the necessary actions or if it’s worth getting an education or learning things for the future if we’re on this path.”
Wolpert said that participating in a climate action club at her school has helped her feel better, but not much, because she’s encountered so many adults who neglect the issue.
In Paradise, a politically conservative community whose population shrank by more than three-quarters after the Camp Fire, climate change is discussed little; when the topic does come up, it’s sometimes dismissed as “fake news.” Marsters, the Paradise High science teacher, said she doesn’t teach much on climate change because the state standards don’t prioritize it.
While California’s science standards are more explicit than those of many states when it comes to the topic, Marsters said she’d welcome state legislation like the bill introduced in January that would make climate change education a graduation requirement. The science textbooks in her classroom were published in 2008, years before the most recent scientific assessments underlining the extreme urgency of the climate crisis.
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Some students and teachers are determined to find lessons from the fire beyond loss and despair.
Sperske, the Paradise High senior, said she’s relieved that grades are no longer her primary preoccupation. She feels more appreciative now and does a better job of staying in touch with friends and family. “It changed me in a way that will change my whole life,” she said.
Her classmate Asiya Russo said students support each other in a way they didn’t before. The seniors set up a Snapchat group and message each other for help. Russo recently needed her car jumped and classmates responded immediately. “I get really nervous texting the chat because it’s such a big chat,” she said. “But the second you do, everyone’s really supportive and helpful.”
What Paradise will look like in the future remains a big question. Some are hopeful that the town will rebound. Next to Paradise High School, two new houses are going up, a testament to the close-knit nature of the town that keeps some wanting to return. Tom Taylor, the school district superintendent, said he’s spoken with other districts that have survived disasters and that, based on those conversations, he expects the student body will grow slightly in a few years.
But the opposite could also happen. The calculus of the many students who moved to other towns after the fire yet decided to re-enroll in Paradise schools for continuity could change.
Either way, there’s a new crisis looming. Since the fire, the Paradise school district has continued to be funded at pre-disaster levels despite its smaller student body, through a provision known as “hold harmless.” But that money is ending, and this spring, roughly 30 school district employees were put on notice that they’ll lose their jobs next year. It’s the sort of funding crunch that more districts will face as emergencies shrink student bodies, destroy school infrastructure and create new needs for counseling, transportation and other services.
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In Paradise, it’s unclear if the district can retain counselors like Eckhart beyond next year. The county has been raising philanthropic money to help them stay. Meanwhile, educators worry that the layoffs could send the district’s fragile educational gains of the past six months into a tailspin. “I just think we’re in for a big storm for a while,” said Angel Allen-Clifford, a school psychologist who has worked in the district for 22 years.
When school staff feel disheartened, Eckhart said he tries to remind them of their heroism on the day of the Camp Fire. “You guys had 3,000 students and hundreds of teachers, and everyone made it off the ridge. Nobody died, nobody got hurt,” he said. “That, to me, is a remarkable miracle.”
But how many more miracles can an increasingly chaotic world yield? Eckhart wonders. In parts of California, fire season now runs virtually year-round, multiplying the risks of calamity and leaving residents feeling defenseless against nature. Eckhart said he misses the days when earthquakes felt like the biggest threat. When he hikes in the mountains near Paradise, passing by other towns vulnerable to fire, he said he wonders if the Earth’s paroxysms can still be survived.
“There are too many environmental factors that are creating this catastrophic area,” said Eckhart as he sat in his mostly bare office on the aged Paradise High campus. “It’s not a question of ‘if.’ It almost feels like, when ...?”