Philadelphia students could head back to classes before Labor Day for the next two years, according to proposed academic calendars the district released Tuesday.
The pre-Labor Day start for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 calendars will allow for longer spring and winter recesses as well as additional cultural and religious holidays throughout the year, district officials said this week.
Superintendent Tony Watlington also confirmed Tuesday that district schools and offices will be closed on Friday for the Philadelphia Eagles celebratory Super Bowl parade.
“We look forward to celebrating the Eagles’ victory as a community, and we hope that our students, staff and families will do so safely and responsibly,” Watlington said in a statement.
The question of whether to start before or after Labor Day has rankled families and district leaders in recent years, in part because many Philly schools do not have adequate air conditioning. That has forced some buildings to close or dismiss students early due to excessive heat in the first week back.
This school year, the first day back landed before Labor Day, and 63 schools without air conditioning dismissed students early, during the first week of classes. However, school started after Labor Day in 2023-24, and heat closures still impacted students’ learning time that first week.
Shakeera Warthen-Canty, assistant superintendent of school operations and management at the district, said their academic calendar recommendations this year are built off of a survey and several in-person feedback sessions.
The majority of parents and caregivers who responded preferred a post-Labor Day start, the survey found. But students, teachers, school staff, and community members reported they overwhelmingly preferred starting the school year before Labor Day.
Some 16,400 parents, students, school staff, principals, and community members responded to the survey the district sent out last September, Warthen-Canty said.
Respondents also said they wanted more frequent breaks for longer durations to accommodate family vacations, as well as time to rest, support mental health, and prevent staff burnout.
State law says districts must have a minimum of 180 student days, or a minimum of 900 instructional hours for elementary school students and 990 hours for middle and high school students. The district’s collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union also requires 188 teacher work days, as well as a minimum of 28 professional development hours.
The district officials’ calendar recommendations will go to the school board for a vote before they are enacted.
If approved, winter recess would be seven days in 2025-26 and eight days in 2026-27, while spring break would be five days both years.
In addition to the five state and national holidays (Memorial Day, Independence Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Day), Philadelphia school district school holidays in 2025-26 and 2026-27 would include:
Labor Day
Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Indigenous Peoples Day
Veterans Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Presidents Day
Lunar New Year
Eid al-Fitr
Good Friday
Eid al-Adha
Juneteenth
This school year, both Indigenous Peoples Day and Veterans Day were school days.
As for how the new calendar may interact with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker’s commitment to “extended-day, extended-year” school: Deputy Superintendent Jermaine Dawson said this week the district has ensured any expansion of that program will work “alongside our calendar of school days.”
This story was originally published at Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
South Dakota public schools would be required to teach a specific set of Native American historical and cultural lessons if a bill unanimously endorsed by a legislative committee Tuesday in Pierre becomes law.
The bill would mandate the teaching of the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings. The phrase “Oceti Sakowin” refers to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people. The understandings are a set of standards and lessons adopted seven years ago by the South Dakota Board of Education Standards with input from tribal leaders, educators and elders.
Use of the understandings by public schools is optional. A survey conducted by the state Department of Education indicated use by 62% of teachers, but the survey was voluntary and hundreds of teachers did not respond.
Republican state Sen. Tamara Grove, who lives on the Lower Brule Reservation, proposed the bill and asked legislators to follow the lead of Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Chairman J. Garret Renville. He has publicly called for a “reset” of state-tribal relations since the departure of former Gov. Kristi Noem, who was barred by tribal leaders from entering tribal land in the state.
“What I’m asking you to do today,” Grove said, “is to lean into the reset.”
Joe Graves, the state secretary of education and a Noem appointee, testified against the bill. He said portions of the understandings are already incorporated into the state’s social studies standards. He added that the state only mandates four curricular areas: math, science, social studies and English-language arts/reading. He said further mandates would “tighten up the school days, leaving schools with much less instructional flexibility.”
Members of the Senate Education Committee sided with Grove and other supporters, voting 7-0 to send the bill to the full Senate.
The proposal is one of several education mandates that lawmakers have considered this legislative session. The state House rejected a bill this week that would have required posting and teaching the Ten Commandments in schools, and also rejected a bill that would have required schools to post the state motto, “Under God the People Rule.”
South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: [email protected].
While Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s Senate confirmation to head the Department of Health and Human Services was not unexpected, it still shook medical providers, public health experts and parents across the country.
Mary Koslap-Petraco, a pediatric nurse practitioner who exclusively treats underserved children, said when she heard the news Thursday morning she was immediately filled with “absolute dread.”
Mary Koslap-Petraco is a pediatric nurse practitioner and Vaccines for Children provider. (Mary Koslap-Petraco)
“I have been following him for years,” she told The 74. “I’ve read what he has written. I’ve heard what he has said. I know he has made a fortune with his anti-vax stance.”
She is primarily concerned that his rhetoric might “scare the daylights out of people so that they don’t want to vaccinate their children.” She also fears he could move to defund Vaccines for Children, a program under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that provides vaccines to kids who lack health insurance or otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford them. While the program is federally mandated by Congress, moves to drain its funding could essentially render it useless.
Koslap-Petraco’s practice in Massapequa Park, New York relies heavily on the program to vaccinate pediatric patients, she said. If it were to disappear, she asked, “How am I supposed to take care of poor children? Are they supposed to just die or get sick because their parents don’t have the funds to get the vaccines for them?”
And, if the government-run program were to stop paying for vaccines, she said she’s terrified private insurance companies might follow suit.
Vaccines for Children is “the backbone of pediatric vaccine infrastructure in the country,” said Richard Hughes IV, former vice president of public policy at Moderna and a George Washington University law professor who teaches a course on vaccine law.
Kennedy will also have immense power over Medicaid, which covers low-income populations and provides billions of dollars to schools annually for physical, mental and behavioral health services for eligible students.
If Kennedy moves to weaken programs at HHS, which experts expect him to do, through across-the-board cuts in public health funding that trickle down to immunization programs or more targeted attacks, low-income and minority school-aged kids will be disproportionately impacted, Hughes said.
“I just absolutely, fundamentally, confidently believe that we will see deaths,” he added.
Anticipating chaos and instability
Following a contentious seven hours of grilling across two confirmation hearings, Democratic senators protested Kennedy’s confirmation on the floor late into the night Wednesday. The following morning, all 45 Democrats and both Independents voted in opposition and all but one Republican — childhood polio survivor Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — lined up behind President Donald Trump’s pick.
James Hodge, a public health law expert at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, said that while it was good to see senators across the political spectrum asking tough questions and Kennedy offering up some concessions on vaccine-related policies and initiatives, he’s skeptical these will stick.
“Whatever you’ve seen him do for the last 25 to 30 years is a much, much greater predictor than what you saw him do during two or three days of Senate confirmation proceedings,” Hodge said. “Ergo, be concerned significantly about the future of vaccines, vaccine exemptions, [and] how we’re going to fund these things.”
Hodge also said he doesn’t trust how Kennedy will respond to the consequences of a dropoff in childhood vaccines, pointing to the current measles outbreak in West Texas schools.
“The simple reality is he may plant misinformation or mis-messaging,” he said.
During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy tried to distance himself from his past anti-vaccination sentiments stating, “News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. I am neither. I am pro-safety … I believe that vaccines played a critical role in health care. All of my kids are vaccinated.”
He was confirmed as Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Education, was sitting down for her first day of hearings. At one point that morning, McMahon signaled an openness to possibly shifting enforcement to HHS of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — a federal law dating back to 1975 that mandates a free, appropriate public education for the 7.5 million students with disabilities — if Trump were to succeed in shutting down the education department.
This would effectively put IDEA’s $15.4 billion budget under Kennedy’s purview, further linking the education and public health care systems.
In a post on the social media site BlueSky, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote she is “concerned that anyone is willing to move IDEA services for kids with disabilities into HHS, under a secretary who questions science.”
Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union and a parent of a child with ADHD and autism, told The 74 the idea was “absolutely absurd” and would cause chaos and instability.
Kennedy’s history of falsely asserting a link between childhood vaccines and autism — a disability included under IDEA coverage — is particularly concerning to experts in this light.
“You obviously have a contingent of kids who are beneficiaries of IDEA that are navigating autism spectrum disorder,” said Hughes, “Could [we] potentially see some sort of policy activity and rhetoric around that? Potentially.”
Vaccines — and therefore HHS — are inextricably linked to schools. Currently, all 50 states have vaccine requirements for children entering child care and schools. But Kennedy, who now has control of an agency with a $1.7 trillion budget and 90,000 employees spread across 13 agencies, could pull multiple levers to roll back requirements, enforcements and funding, according to The 74’s previous reporting. And Trump has signaled an interest in cutting funding to schools that mandate vaccines.
“There’s a certain percentage of the population that is focused on removing school entry requirements,” said Northe Saunders, executive director of the pro-vaccine SAFE Communities Coalition. “They are loud, and they are organized and they are well funded by groups just like RFK Jr.’s Children’s Health Defense.”
Kennedy will also have the ability to influence the makeup of the committees that approve vaccines and add them to the federal vaccine schedule, which state legislators rely on to determine their school policies. Hodge said one of these committees is already being “re-organized and re-thought as we speak.”
“With him now in place, just expect that committee to start really changing its members, its tone, the demeanor, the forcefulness of which it’s suggesting vaccines,” he added.
Hughes, the law professor, said he is preparing for mass staffing changes throughout the agency, mirroring what’s already happened across multiple federal departments and agencies in Trump’s first weeks in office. He predicts this will include Kennedy possibly asking for the resignations “of all scientific leaders with HHS.”
Kennedy appeared to confirm that he was eyeing staffing cuts Thursday night during an appearance on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle.”
“I have a list in my head … if you’ve been involved in good science, you have got nothing to worry about,” Kennedy said.
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Dive Brief:
Denver Public Schools has issued the latest salvo in the battle over the Trump administration’s controversial new policy allowing immigration raids on school grounds with a lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court.
In the interim, Denver Public Schools is asking for a temporary restraining order to prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection enforcement of the policy.
Dive Insight:
The new Trump policy lifted the practice of avoiding immigration enforcement activities at places where students gather. Versions of the protected areas guidance have been in place for more than 30 years, according to the Denver system’s 25-page lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
According to the lawsuit, school attendance has dropped “noticeably” across all schools in the Denver district — and particularly in schools with “new-to-country families and where ICE raids have already occurred” — since announcement of the new policy.
The suit alleges that the policy is hurting the district’s ability to provide education and life services to children who aren’t attending school out of fear of immigration enforcement action. Colorado’s largest district, Denver Public Schools enrolls more than 90,000 students across 207 schools.
In rescinding 2021 Biden administration language on the topic, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a press release that the reversal would empower Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enforce immigration laws and catch criminals who are in the country illegally.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the statement read. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
In its lawsuit, however, Denver Public Schools alleges that the new policy “gives federal agents virtually unchecked authority to enforce immigration laws in formerly protected areas, including schools. As reported to the public, the sole restraint on agents is that they use their own subjective ‘common sense’ to determine whether to carry out enforcement activities at formally safeguarded locations such as schools.”
The lawsuit further claims that the DHS directive has not been backed up with formal written guidance and seeks for such a policy to be made “available for public inspection.”
In a Thursday statement to CBS News Colorado, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at DHS, said officers “would need secondary supervisor approval before any action can be taken in locations such as a church or a school. We expect these to be extremely rare.”
The Denver Public Schools lawsuit comes the same week as a challenge filed by 27 religious groups — including the Mennonite Church, Episcopal Church and Central Conference of American Rabbis — that accuses the new immigration policy of infringing upon their congregations’ religious freedoms. Another lawsuit filed in January and led by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, a Quaker organization, also alleges the policy infringes upon religious freedoms.
This story was produced by the Associated Press and reprinted with permission.
Math is the subject sixth grader Harmoni Knight finds hardest, but that’s changing.
In-class tutors and “data chats” at her middle school in Compton, California, have made a dramatic difference, the 11-year-old said. She proudly pulled up a performance tracker at a tutoring session last week, displaying a column of perfect 100 percent scores on all her weekly quizzes from January.
Since the pandemic first shuttered American classrooms, schools have poured federal and local relief money into interventions like the ones in Harmoni’s classroom, hoping to help students catch up academically following COVID-19 disruptions.
But a new analysis of state and national test scores shows the average student remains half a grade level behind pre-pandemic achievement in both reading and math. In reading, especially, students are even further behind than they were in 2022, the analysis shows.
Compton is an outlier, making some of the biggest two-year gains in both subjects among large districts. And there are other bright spots, along with evidence that interventions like tutoring and summer programs are working.
Students interact in a fourth grade classroom at William Jefferson Clinton Elementary in Compton, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. Credit: Eric Thayer/Associated Press
The Education Recovery Scorecard analysis by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth allows year-to-year comparisons across states and districts, providing the most comprehensive picture yet of how American students are performing since COVID-19 first disrupted learning.
The most recent data is based on tests taken by students in spring 2024. By then, the worst of the pandemic was long past, but schools were dealing still with a mental health crisis and high rates of absenteeism — not to mention students who’d had crucial learning disrupted.
“The losses are not just due to what happened during the 2020 to 2021 school year, but the aftershocks that have hit schools in the years since the pandemic,” said Tom Kane, a Harvard economist who worked on the scorecard.
In some cases, the analysis shows school districts are struggling when their students may have posted decent results on their state tests. That’s because each state adopts its own assessments, and those aren’t comparable to each other. Those differences can make it impossible to tell whether students are performing better because of their progress, or whether those shifts are because the tests themselves are changing, or the state has lowered its standards for proficiency.
The Scorecard accounts for differing state tests and provides one national standard.
Higher-income districts have made significantly more progress than lower-income districts, with the top 10 percent of high-income districts four times more likely to have recovered in both math and reading compared with the poorest 10 percent. And recovery within districts remains divided by race and class, especially in math scores. Test score gaps grew by both race and income.
A student works in a classroom at Benjamin O. Davis Middle School in Compton, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. Credit: Eric Thayer/Associated Press
“The pandemic has not only driven test scores down, but that decline masks a pernicious inequality that has grown during the pandemic,” said Sean Reardon, a Stanford sociologist who worked on the scorecard. “Not only are districts serving more Black and Hispanic students falling further behind, but even within those districts, Black and Hispanic students are falling further behind their white district mates.”
Still, many of the districts that outperformed the country serve predominantly low-income students or students of color, and their interventions offer best practices for other districts.
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In Compton, the district responded to the pandemic by hiring over 250 tutors that specialize in math, reading and students learning English. Certain classes are staffed with multiple tutors to assist teachers. And schools offer tutoring before, during and after school, plus “Saturday School” and summer programs for the district’s 17,000 students, said Superintendent Darin Brawley.
To identify younger students needing targeted support, the district now conducts dyslexia screenings in all elementary schools.
The low-income school district near downtown Los Angeles, with a student body that is 84 percent Latino and 14 percent Black, now has a graduation rate of 93 percent, compared with 58 percent when Brawley took the job in 2012.
Harmoni, the sixth-grader, said that one-on-one tutoring has helped her grasp concepts and given her more confidence in math. She gets separate “data chats” with her math specialist that are part performance review, part pep talk.
“Looking at my data, it kind of disappoints me” when the numbers are low, said Harmoni. “But it makes me realize I can do better in the future, and also now.”
Brawley said he’s proud of the district’s latest test scores, but not content.
“Truth be told, I wasn’t happy,” he said. “Even though we gained, and we celebrate the gains, at the end of the day we all know that we can do better.”
A tutor helps students at Benjamin O. Davis Middle School in Compton, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. Credit: Eric Thayer/Associated Press
As federal pandemic relief money for schools winds down, states and school districts will have limited resources and must prioritize interventions that worked. Districts that spent federal money on increased instructional time, either through tutoring or summer school, saw a return on that investment.
Reading levels have continued to decline, despite a movement in many states to emphasize phonics and the “science of reading.” So Reardon and Kane called for an evaluation of the mixed results for insights into the best ways to teach kids to read.
The researchers emphasized the need to extend state and local money to support pandemic recovery programs that showed strong academic results. Schools also must engage parents and tell them when their kids are behind, the researchers said.
And schools must continue to work with community groups to improve students’ attendance. The scorecard identified a relationship between high absenteeism and learning struggles.
In the District of Columbia, an intensive tutoring program helped with both academics and attendance, said D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee. In the scorecard analysis, the District of Columbia ranked first among states for gains in both math and reading between 2022 and 2024, after its math recovery had fallen toward the bottom of the list.
Pandemic-relief money funded the tutoring, along with a system of identifying and targeting support at students in greatest need. The district also hired program managers who helped maximize time for tutoring within the school day, Ferebee said.
Students who received tutoring were more likely to be engaged with school, Ferebee said, both from increased confidence over the subject matter and because they had a relationship with another trusted adult.
Students expressed that “I’m more confident in math because I’m being validated by another adult,” Ferebee said. “That validation goes a long way, not only with attendance, but a student feeling like they are ready to learn and are capable, and as a result, they show up differently.”
Federal pandemic relief money has ended, but Ferebee said many of the investments the district made will have lasting impact, including the money spent on teacher training and curriculum development in literacy.
Students walk through a hallway at Benjamin O. Davis Middle School in Compton, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. Credit: Eric Thayer/Associated Press
Christina Grant, who served as the District of Columbia’s state superintendent of education until 2024, said she’s hopeful to see the evidence emerging on what’s made a difference in student achievement.
“We cannot afford to not have hope. These are our students. They did not cause the pandemic,” Grant said. “The growing concern is ensuring that we can … see ourselves to the other side.”
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The Trump administration has cleared the way for immigration arrests at or near schools, ending a decades-old approach.
Republican and Democratic administrations alike have treated schools and child care centers, along with churches and hospitals, as “sensitive” or “protected” locations where immigration enforcement should only take place when there is an immediate danger to the public.
A copy of the Homeland Security memo was not immediately available for review.
But in a statement, a Homeland Security spokesperson said that Acting Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive on Monday that rescinded the sensitive locations policy. The spokesperson said the action would help federal authorities enforce immigration law and catch criminals who entered the country illegally. Immigration agents will be asked to use “common sense” in enforcing the law.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the statement read.
Even before this policy existed, large-scale immigration raids weren’t conducted at schools. But Trump’s policy change paves the way for immigration agents to detain parents during dropoff or pickup, as has happened occasionally in the past.
Immigrant rights advocates worry that could lead to more absenteeism among children with immigrant parents, who may now fear being stopped by immigration agents while driving or walking their kids to school. That happened during the first Trump administration. Advocates also worry about the potential for routine interactions with school police to reveal a student or family’s immigration status, and lead to their deportation.
Some school districts have issued explicit instructions to educators and parents about how school staff should handle an immigration agent’s presence on campus. Some districts have also said they will not permit a federal agent on school premises without a judicial warrant, and that staff will be instructed to call the school system’s lawyer if these agents do show up.
Some of the nation’s largest districts, including Los Angeles and Chicago, have re-upped or expanded existing policies meant to protect immigrant students and families. New York City is scheduled to vote on a resolution this week that would reaffirm a policy preventing school safety agents from collaborating with federal immigration authorities in most cases.
Trump also signed an executive order that seeks to end the automatic right to citizenship for any child born in the U.S. On January 21, 18 states announced they were suing to block the policy change.
This story has been updated to include confirmation and comments from the Department of Homeland Security about the policy change.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Chicago Public Schools launched new school profiles on its website — a milestone in the district’s five-year push to change how it portrays the quality of its campuses.
The new school accountability dashboards replace the district’s controversial number ratings for schools, which CPS put on hold and then scrapped during the pandemic. Those ratings had drawn the ire of educators and some community members, who said they unfairly stigmatized campuses that serve students with high needs. The old level ratings had also factored into high-stakes decisions about school closures and staff overhauls.
Some parents who’ve provided feedback on the shift said families welcome having a one-stop repository of information on school performance again. But they said they’d like to see simpler, more accessible language in information about the metrics the district included to put the numbers into context. And they noted that a busy parent must click repeatedly to get to each metric — only to find out in many cases that these numbers aren’t available yet.
Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district’s chief education officer, said the new system aimed to strike a balance.
“We didn’t want this to be just another state report card; we are embracing the complexity of the data,” she said. “If it looked like a one-pager in red and green, that just brings in the trauma.”
The new profiles went up in mid-December, the day after the window to apply to the district’s selective and magnet programs closed. Chkoumbova said the timing was not intentional. After all, families could find most of the information available on the dashboards so far on schools’ Illinois Report Card profiles.
For now, the profiles include only a portion of the data they’ll eventually feature — mostly traditional metrics such as test scores, chronic absenteeism, and graduation rates. Later this year, the district is gearing up to add long-anticipated information that gets at students’ experience and well-being — metrics that in some cases officials are still weighing how to best capture.
Still, CPS leaders say the launch of the new dashboards is an important start. They can be a handy tool as the members of a new, partly elected school board learn about the district and its schools. District officials plan to show off the profiles at the board’s monthly meeting on Thursday.
“We are transitioning to a completely new way of how we view student success and the district’s role in supporting schools,” said Chkoumbova.
The dashboards are available here by scrolling to the bottom and looking up a school.
The new profiles are five years in the making
Chicago first set out to overhaul how it measures and publicly communicates about school quality in 2019. At that time, school board members called on district officials to do away with the School Quality Rating System, or SQRP, policy, which many considered too focused on metrics that are affected by poverty levels and other demographics of the student body. The district formally adopted a new Continuous Improvement and Data Transparency policy in 2023.
With input from academics, parents, and others, the district tried to design a more holistic approach, bringing in a wider array of metrics, including some that got at the experience students have on campus — and at whether the district is providing schools the resources they need to improve that experience.
After years of largely behind-the-scenes work, the new dashboards went live quietly in December, giving principals and other educators a chance to weigh in.
Claiborne Wade, the father of four CPS students, served on a district committee that provided input on the new accountability system. He said he is a big believer in the district’s efforts to take a more holistic look at school performance.
“It’s more than test scores and attendance rates and graduation rates,” he said. “Those are important, but so is making sure we have funds for extracurricular activities and parents have a seat at the table.”
Last week, Wade presented the new dashboards to a group of 10 parents actively involved at DePriest Elementary on the West Side, where he works as a family coordinator as part of the Sustainable Community Schools program. Some liked that the new dashboards offer information about each metric and how to interpret it. But many felt these explanations were too heavy on education jargon and terms such as “alternate assessments.”
Jaqueline Vargas, the mother of two CPS students and two district graduates, said the site asks parents to do too much navigating — especially given that many metrics are not landing on the dashboard until later this year.
“You have to click a lot, but when you finally get there, the information isn’t there,” said Vargas, who also served on the district’s Transparency Committee.
She said she would love to see more information on parent leadership groups and parent engagement more generally, photos of principals, and readily accessible listings of the specialized programs and support services a campus offers. One of her CPS graduates was really interested in cooking while in high school, but the family had no idea that even though their neighborhood high school did not offer a culinary program, two nearby campuses did.
Hal Woods, chief of policy with the parent advocacy group Kids First Chicago, said the dashboards are clearly a work in progress. The layout can be more user-friendly. The metrics available so far are largely what SQRP offered, though the recently released dashboards do include some new information, such as whether a school has quality curriculums.
Parents are eager to see the full set of metrics later this year, Woods said — including those that show how schools are providing social and emotional support to students, a task that recent research has shown greatly affects outcomes such as high school graduation.
The district aims to better measure the student experience
Like districts across the country, CPS is still grappling with how to measure the student experience on campus more fully, said Elaine Allensworth of the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research. For the past two years, the district has given students a survey called Cultivate, which was developed by Allenworth’s team at the university. But she says the survey was designed to give teachers information about students’ experiences in their classrooms — not as an accountability tool for families and others.
“There’s a concern that if the survey becomes public, teachers would feel under pressure to make their schools look good and won’t feel as comfortable using it for their own development,” she said.
The district also explored how to best present another key piece of the student experience: extracurricular activities. The district could likely do more than simply listing the activities a school offers, Allensworth said. The new dashboards show the portion of students who participate in any activities. But are these activities high-quality? Are outside partners chipping in?
Chkoumbova said the district will continue to work on improving the platform. In late February, it will include new data on the growth toward math and reading proficiency on state tests that students make — a metric that Ellensworth said is much more telling about how well a school is doing than the portion of students who meet state standards on these tests.
Chkoumbova feels CPS is on the right track.
“We are trailblazers,” she said. “There are very few systems that have taken such an innovative and different approach.”
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The case will be heard at London’s High Court April 1-3, the Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents private schools in the UK, revealed this week.
It’s the latest step in its furious battle to overturn a policy – key to the Labour party’s election manifesto before it regained power in July 2024 – to start levying VAT on private school fees.
The ISC said its case, led by prominent human rights barrister Lord Pannick KC, would argue that the VAT policy “impedes access to education in independent schools” and is therefore incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
In the case, the ISC is supporting six families impacted by the policy, and the defendent in UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
The case is being heard on an expedited basis following a successful argument from Lord Pannick that parents needed certainty because they are already feeling the effects of the policy.
ISC CEO Julie Robinson said the organisation’s aim was to “protect the rights” of families and young people “who are having their choice removed from them”.
“This is an unprecedented tax on education – it is right that its compatibility with human rights law is tested,” she continued. “We believe the diversity within independent schools has been ignored in the haste to implement this damaging policy, with families and, ultimately, children, bearing the brunt of the negative impacts this rushed decision is already having.”
This is an unprecedented tax on education – it is right that its compatibility with human rights law is tested Julie Robinson, ISC
Reeves confirmed in October that the party would be slapping a 20% tax on fees for January 2025, leading to fears from independent boarding schools that their intake of international students could plummet.
Experts predicted that although some schools would choose to swallow the loss of revenue, most would be forced to raise their fees an average of 10-15% to cover costs.
An online private school told The PIE News earlier this month that it has seen a “five-fold” surge in interest from parents since the VAT policy was announced last year.
CEO of Minerva’s Virtual Academy, Hugh Viney, credited the rise in demand to the VAT policy, as he said the school’s fees are “good value” and much less than most private schools at under £8,500 per year – a price that has always included VAT and is therefore unchanged by the new legislation.
With video consumption accounting for nearly 83% of global internet traffic and popular platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook prioritizing video content, video marketing has become indispensable for educational institutions aiming to boost visibility and enrollment.
To stay competitive in today’s market, you’ll need to harness the potential of video advertising effectively. This comprehensive guide explores the power of video marketing for schools, the types of video content that work best for student recruitment, strategies for success, and solutions to common challenges.
Struggling to stand out in a crowded market?
Boost Enrollment with Engaging Short Videos
The Power of Video Ads
Video ads have revolutionized student recruitment strategies. With the average attention span of viewers shrinking to just eight seconds, video offers a uniquely engaging way to capture attention and convey key messages.
Prospective students, especially from Generation Z, respond favorably to videos that are authentic, visually appealing, and emotionally resonant. Institutions that embrace this medium can benefit in several ways.
Source: HEM
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The Rise of Video Content
The prevalence of mobile devices has played a crucial role in video’s dominance. Roughly 75% of video consumption now takes place on smartphones, which means that optimizing video content for mobile viewing is no longer optional.
How can you ensure that your videos perform well on mobile devices? Optimize videos for vertical viewing on social media stories, reels, and TikTok where many of your prospects spend time each day.
Videos resonate because they combine auditory and visual stimuli, making it easier to communicate complex ideas quickly. From showcasing campus life to highlighting academic achievements, videos allow your institution to tell compelling stories that resonate with viewers on an emotional level.
Video is also uniquely positioned to address the challenge of dwindling attention spans. Short, visually rich content quickly captures the viewer’s interest and sustains it by combining engaging visuals with concise messaging.
Platforms such as TikTok, with its bite-sized, highly engaging format, demonstrate the power of video to connect with younger audiences effectively. On platforms like YouTube, longer-form videos offer opportunities to dive deeper into campus life, academic programs, or institutional values.
Engagement metrics further underscore the importance of video. Social media algorithms prioritize video content, leading to higher visibility and better engagement rates.
Studies consistently show that video posts receive significantly more likes, shares, and comments than static posts. This increased interaction enhances the institution’s online presence and builds a stronger connection with potential students by inviting them to engage directly with the content.
Finally, video content creates a multisensory experience that helps prospective students visualize themselves at the institution. When students see themselves participating in activities, walking the campus, or enjoying the community, they are more likely to form an emotional connection that influences their decision-making process.
Example: Here, UC Berkeley shares a short, interesting interview-styled video, optimized for vertical video apps. When choosing a video format and editing your video, be sure to keep your viewer’s short attention span in mind.
To fully leverage video advertising, it’s important to understand the different types of videos that resonate with your audience. Each type serves a unique purpose, allowing schools to communicate effectively across various platforms.
Hype Promo Videos
Hype promo videos are ideal for generating excitement around major announcements, such as launching a new program or an upcoming campus event. These high-energy videos grab attention with dynamic visuals and captivating music, making them perfect for social media platforms where scrolling speeds are fast.
While shorter clips work well for platforms like Instagram and TikTok, longer versions can be hosted on the institution’s website or YouTube channel to provide a more comprehensive overview.
Example: Randolph-Macon Academy uses high-quality footage, eye-catching editing, and epic music to tell a compelling story about the student life experience they offer. Hype promo videos are an excellent avenue for visual storytelling.
Source: Randolph – Macon Academy | YouTube
User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is a game-changer for student recruitment. Content created by current students, alumni, or ambassadors exudes authenticity, which prospective students highly value.
Whether it’s a student documenting their day on campus or an alumnus sharing their career journey, UGC builds trust and fosters a sense of relatability. Institutions can encourage student participation by offering incentives like branded merchandise or featuring contributors prominently on official channels.
Example: This UGC video from Cumberland College is authentic and appeals to the desires of a specific Gen-Z audience particularly as the popularity of online careers grows. Throughout your UGC campaign, be sure to focus on highlighting genuine experiences to differentiate the content from a traditional ad.
Limited budgets should never deter institutions from producing impactful video content. If you’re wondering how to create video ads on a limited budget, look no further than a modern smartphone. Capable of capturing high-quality footage, you can create professional-looking videos without expensive equipment.
Simple strategies like natural lighting, stabilizing the camera, and adding subtitles can elevate production quality. Starting small with test videos allows for refinement over time, paving the way for a more robust video marketing strategy.
Example: Video marketing for schools doesn’t always have to involve highly produced footage. As long as the quality isn’t compromised, and the results are just as engaging, all you really need to get started is a modern smartphone with a decent camera and some creative ideas. Video marketing is heavily trend-driven, particularly on platforms where short-form videos are popular. For your DIY videos, do preliminary research, taking note of the trends that viewers are responding to.
Source: Cambridge University | YouTube
Strategies for Effective Video Content
Creating effective video ads requires more than just compelling visuals. Institutions must adopt a strategic approach to ensure their content aligns with their goals and resonates with their target audience.
Focus on Quality Over Quantity
Every video should reflect the institution’s values, strengths, and mission. To ensure consistently high-quality video content, schools can implement several strategies.
First, create clear production guidelines that include lighting, sound, and framing recommendations. These guidelines can help amateur creators, such as students contributing user-generated content, maintain a professional standard.
When relying on user-generated content (UGC), provide participants basic training or tip sheets on capturing footage. Encourage contributors to use stable tripods, proper lighting, and minimal background noise to enhance video clarity. Offering editing support or simple tools to enhance UGC—such as branded filters or overlays—ensures that the final product aligns with the institution’s brand identity.
Consistency in quality also comes from pre-production planning. For example, institutions can create storyboards or scripts for key content themes, ensuring each video maintains a cohesive narrative. Review processes are equally critical; assigning a designated team or individual to review and approve content before publication allows schools to catch inconsistencies and errors early.
Investing in scalable tools, such as video editing software or mobile apps, allows schools to polish videos before posting. Paired with these efforts, periodic feedback sessions with creators can help refine content over time. A single high-quality video can generate more engagement and drive more conversions than a series of poorly produced clips.
Segment Videos by Topic
Educational institutions cater to diverse audiences, each with unique interests and priorities. By creating topic-specific videos, schools can address these varying needs effectively. For instance, one video might highlight academic programs, while another focuses on student life or campus facilities.
This segmentation ensures prospective students receive information tailored to their interests, enhancing engagement and encouraging further exploration.
Example: Organize your videos into playlists to make it easier for viewers to find what they’re looking for as the University of Toronto did on their YouTube page in the image below.
Source: University of Toronto
Showcase Real Success Stories
Nothing resonates more deeply than genuine success stories. Featuring interviews with current students, alumni, or faculty members allows institutions to highlight real-world outcomes and the impact of their programs.
These narratives provide relatable insights that prospective students can envision for themselves, making the institution’s offerings more tangible and aspirational.
To create compelling success story videos, schools should start by identifying standout students or alumni whose journeys reflect the institution’s values and strengths.
Conduct interviews in visually appealing settings, such as iconic campus locations, to give viewers a sense of place. Incorporate diverse voices and experiences to ensure the stories resonate with a wide audience.
Actionable strategies include integrating authentic visuals, such as clips of the featured individual participating in classes, engaging in extracurricular activities, or achieving milestones in their careers. Pair these visuals with concise, heartfelt narratives that emphasize personal growth and accomplishments.
For consistency and quality, schools can create a structured framework for storytelling. This might include opening with a brief introduction, highlighting the challenges or goals the individual faced, and concluding with their achievements and future aspirations. Encourage participants to speak naturally, as unscripted moments often feel more genuine and relatable.
Additionally, amplify the impact of these stories by embedding them into broader marketing campaigns. Share snippets on social media, include them in email outreach, or feature them prominently on the institution’s website. This multi-channel approach ensures that success stories reach prospective students at various touchpoints, enhancing their overall effectiveness.
Boost Engagement with CTAs
Every video should include a clear and compelling Call-To-Action (CTA). CTAs are the bridge between engagement and action, guiding viewers to take the next step in their journey with the institution. To craft effective CTAs, schools should focus on clarity and relevance. For instance, a video showcasing campus life might end with an invitation to “Book a Campus Tour,” while a testimonial video could encourage viewers to “Apply Today and Start Your Journey.”
The placement and timing of CTAs are equally important. CTAs placed at the end of a video often drive action most effectively, as viewers are already immersed in the content. However, mid-video CTAs can also be used strategically in longer videos to re-engage audiences who may drop off before the end. Interactive elements like clickable links or embedded forms can make CTAs even more effective by reducing friction for viewers.
Customization of CTAs based on the platform is another key strategy. On YouTube, a CTA might take the form of a video overlay or end screen, while Instagram could use stickers or swipe-up features. These platform-specific approaches ensure that the CTA feels natural and intuitive to the viewer.
Finally, measuring the success of CTAs is critical. Schools can track metrics such as click-through rates, conversions, and engagement to refine their approach over time. A/B testing different CTA phrasing or formats can also provide valuable insights into what resonates most with prospective students. With these strategies in place, CTAs can transform passive viewership into active interest and tangible results.
Overcoming Challenges in Video Marketing
Despite its benefits, video marketing comes with its own set of challenges. Educational institutions must address these hurdles to maximize the impact of their campaigns.
Privacy and Legal Compliance
Privacy concerns are paramount when creating promotional content involving students. Institutions should implement consent forms and adhere to relevant regulations to ensure that all video materials comply with legal requirements. Transparency in this process not only safeguards the institution but also builds trust with stakeholders.
Maintaining Brand Cohesion
Consistency is key to building a strong brand identity. To achieve this, schools should develop a brand style guide that outlines visual and messaging standards for all video content. This ensures that every video aligns with the institution’s overall branding, reinforcing recognition and credibility.
Generating Fresh Content
Keeping content fresh and engaging can be a challenge, especially for institutions with limited resources. One solution is to develop themes or “content buckets,” such as academic achievements, campus events, or faculty highlights. This approach provides a structured framework for content creation, making it easier to maintain a steady flow of new material.
Leveraging Stock Footage
For institutions with constrained budgets, stock footage offers a cost-effective alternative to original video production. By customizing stock footage with branded elements like logos or text overlays, schools can create visually appealing content that feels authentic and aligned with their messaging.
Enhancing Impact with Professional Elements
While authenticity is critical, incorporating professional touches can elevate video quality and make content more impactful. Techniques like using green screens, investing in studio settings, and optimizing videos for mobile viewing can significantly enhance production value.
Additionally, tailoring content for specific platforms—such as LinkedIn for professional audiences or Instagram for visual storytelling—ensures maximum reach and engagement.
Building Trust Through Authenticity
Authenticity is the cornerstone of effective video marketing. Overly polished advertisements can sometimes feel impersonal, while genuine, unscripted content fosters emotional connections.
Videos that highlight real student experiences, showcase unfiltered moments, or provide behind-the-scenes glimpses into campus life resonate deeply with prospective students, making them more likely to consider the institution.
Cost-Effectiveness and ROI
Video marketing doesn’t have to break the bank. User-generated content, in particular, offers a highly cost-effective way to create engaging videos. Encouraging students and alumni to contribute content not only reduces production costs but also enhances relatability.
When paired with strong CTAs, video ads often outperform other formats in generating conversions, making them a high-ROI investment for student recruitment campaigns.
Example: Pictured below are the average conversion rates of various traffic sources. Second only to organic traffic (referring to visitors that complete a desired action after finding your institution through unpaid search results), video marketing boasts a high 4.8% conversion rate making it a worthy investment.
Source: Business Dasher
In review, what are the best video marketing strategies for schools? Creating effective video ads requires you to go beyond compelling visuals. Schools need to adopt a strategic approach to ensure their content aligns with their goals and resonates with their target audience.
This includes focusing on quality over quantity by creating visually appealing and professional videos that reflect the institution’s values. Schools should also segment their video content by topic to cater to the diverse interests of their prospective students, ensuring each video delivers targeted and relevant information.
Leveraging real success stories is another impactful strategy, as these narratives provide relatable and aspirational insights. Institutions should also craft clear and engaging calls-to-action (CTAs) that guide viewers toward the desired next steps, such as applying or signing up for a campus tour.
Ensuring consistency in quality, brand cohesion, and authenticity while addressing privacy concerns and optimizing for platform-specific formats will further enhance the effectiveness of video ads. By combining these strategies, you can create videos that capture attention and drive meaningful engagement and conversions.
Video ads are transforming digital marketing strategies for schools. Embracing this powerful medium can significantly amplify your reach, foster emotional connections, and drive enrollment. From leveraging user-generated content to creating high-quality promotional videos, the strategies outlined in this guide provide a roadmap for success.
Don’t get left behind as marketing trends evolve. Institutions that prioritize video marketing will be better positioned to connect with the next generation of students and thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape. The time to invest in video ads is now and we can help you get started.
Struggling to stand out in a crowded market?
Boost Enrollment with Engaging Short Videos
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How to create video ads on a limited budget?
Answer: Look no further than a modern smartphone. Capable of capturing high-quality footage, you can create professional-looking videos without expensive equipment. Simple strategies like using natural lighting, stabilizing the camera, and adding subtitles can elevate production quality.
Question: What are the best video marketing strategies for schools?
Answer: Creating effective video ads requires you to go beyond compelling visuals. Schools need to adopt a strategic approach to ensure their content aligns with their goals and resonates with their target audience.
Social media has connected kids like never before, but what they get in likes and shares, they lose in real, meaningful engagement with their peers and classmates. Lunch hours are spent hunched over smartphones, and after-school time means less sports and more Snapchat.
The adverse effects of this excessive screen time have significantly impacted students’ social- emotional health. Forty-one percent of teens with the highest social media usage struggle with mental health issues, and between 2010 and 2020, anxiety among adolescents skyrocketed by 106 percent.
At Spokane Public Schools (SPS), educators and administrators are reversing the side effects of social media by re-connecting with students through school-based extracurricular activities. Through its transformative Engage IRL (Engage in Real Life) initiative, the district is encouraging kids to get off their devices and onto the pickleball court, into the swimming pool, and outside in the fresh air. With more than 300 clubs and sports to choose from, SPS students are happier, healthier, and less likely to reach for their smartphones.
An innovative approach to student engagement
Even before the pandemic, SPS saw levels of engagement plummet among the student population, especially in school attendance rates, due in part to an increase in mental health issues caused by social media. Rebuilding classroom connections in the era of phone-based childhoods would require district leaders to think big.
“The question was not ‘How do we get kids off their phones?’ but ‘How do we get them engaged with each other more often?’” said Ryan Lancaster, executive director of communications for SPS. “Our intent was to get every kid, every day, involved in something positive outside the school day and extend that community learning past the classroom.”
To meet the district’s goal of creating a caring and connected community, in 2022, school leaders formed a workgroup of parents, community members, coaches, and teachers to take inventory of current extracurriculars at all district schools and identify gaps in meeting students’ diverse interests and hobbies.
Engaging with students was a top priority for workgroup members. “The students were excited to be heard,” explained Nikki Otero Lockwood, SPS board president. “A lot of them wanted an art club. They wanted to play board games and learn to knit. No matter their interests, what they really wanted was to be at school and be connected to others.”
Working with community partners and LaunchNW, an Innovia Foundation initiative focused on helping every child feel a sense of belonging, SPS launched Engage IRL–an ambitious push to turn students’ ideas for fun and fulfillment into real-life, engaging activities.
Over the past two years, Engage IRL has been the catalyst for increasing access and opportunities for K-12 students to participate in clubs, sports, arts activities, and other community events. From the Math is Cool Club and creative writing classes to wrestling and advanced martial arts, kids can find a full range of activities to join through the Elite IRL website. In addition, five engagement navigators in the district help connect families and students to engagement opportunities through individual IRL Plans and work with local organizations to expand programming.
“All day, every day, our navigators are working to break down barriers and tackle challenges to make sure nothing gets in the way of what kids want to be involved in and engaged in,” said Stephanie Splater, executive director of athletics and activities for SPS. “For example, when we didn’t have a coach for one of the schools in our middle school football program, our navigators mobilized for really good candidates in a short amount of time just from their personal outreach.”
In only two years, student engagement in extracurriculars has nearly doubled. Furthermore, according to Lancaster, since the Engage IRL launch, SPS hasn’t experienced a day where it dipped below 90 percent attendance.
“That’s an outlier in the past few years for us, for sure, and we think it’s because kids want to be at school. They want to be engaged and be part of all the cool things we’re doing. We’ve had a really great start to the 2024-2025 school year, and Engage IRL has played a huge role.”
Engage IRL also helped SPS weather student blowback when the district launched a new cell phone policy this year. The policy prohibits cell phone use in elementary and middle school and limits it to lunch and periods between classes for high school students. Because students were already building personal connections with classmates and teachers through Engage IRL, many easily handled social media withdrawal.
Creating opportunities for all kids
Key to Engage IRL’s success was ensuring partnerships and programs were centered in equity, allowing every child to participate regardless of ability, financial or transportation constraints, or language barriers.
Establishing a no-cut policy in athletics by creating additional JV and C teams ensured kids with a passion for sports, but not college-level skills, continued to compete on the court or field. Partnering with Special Olympics also helped SPS build new unified sports programs that gave children with disabilities a chance to play. And engagement navigators are assisting English language learners and their families in finding activities that help them connect with kids in their new country.
For Otero Lockwood, getting her daughter with autism connected to clubs after years of struggling to find school activities has been life-changing.
“There are barriers to finding community for some kids,” she shared. “We know kids with disabilities are more likely to be underemployed as adults and not as connected to the community. This is something we have the power to do that will have a lasting impact on the children we serve.”
Through Engage IRL, SPS has redefined student engagement by expanding access and opportunity to 6,000 students across 58 schools. In just two short years, the district has seen attendance increase, student wellness improve, and dependence on smartphones diminish. By continuing to listen to the needs of students and rallying the community to partner on out-of-school activities, Spokane Public Schools is successfully fostering the face-to-face connections every child needs to thrive.
Sean Duke, Washington State School Directors’ Association
Sean Duke is the communications officer for the Washington State School Directors’ Association, where he has served for over six years.
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