Education Lab

Education Lab
Monday, October 18, 2021. Kids being dropped off at Cascadia Elementary school in Seattle where cuts to school bus routes mean more walking to school and rides by parents. 218553

Seattle parents rush to find ways to get kids to school after district suspends 142 bus routes

Parents found alternative ways to take their children to school Monday after Seattle Public Schools indefinitely suspended 142 school bus routes, mostly to north end schools.

Top Education Lab Stories

Back to Class

Students often don’t catch up in studies of remedial classes and fall further behind their classmates. catchingup3.jpg: Not all tutoring programs have been successful but, across hundreds of research studies, daily tutoring rises to the top as one of the most effective interventions in helping struggling students. Amadou Diallo for The Hechinger Report Catchingup4.jpg: Schools are spending big chunks of their approximately $190 billion in pandemic relief money on a range of catch-up strategies from after-school programs to tutoring. Gretchen Ertl for The Hechinger Report
Education Lab

The research behind effective strategies for catching up students after the pandemic

Katie Humphrey, counselor at Columbia Middle School, and two students give themselves “Wakanda hugs” in lieu of the real thing before the students move on to high school. May 26, 2021. Photo by Sara Hertwig
Education Lab

When kids pick their ‘trusted adult’ in the school community, it pays off VIEW

Public school teachers in Brunswick, Maine, take a class to increase their technical knowledge on Aug. 18, 2021, before students return at the end of the month. Photo by Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor
Education Lab

The digital divide is narrowing, but how will schools maintain progress?

Former UW professor, now a Harvard researcher, Kate McLaughlin has been looking in to the impacts on the brains of young persons as the result of stress and trauma. Photographed Friday, July 16, 2021. 217655
Education Lab

Scientists are racing to unravel the pandemic’s toll on kids’ brains

About Education Lab

Education Lab is a project of the Seattle Times that spotlights promising approaches to persistent challenges in public education. Our team reports on issues like improving school discipline, parent education, math instruction and more. Our goal? To connect parents, students and educators to drive innovative solutions.

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Funding

As Terrell Dorsey, president and founder of Unleash the Brilliance watches (top right), Yafet Amine with the Unleash the Brilliance organization and the Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, bags a plastic bottle he just picked up from the waters of South Lake Union Wednesday, July 14, 2021. Unleash the Brilliance is a youth organization that has historically worked to help students reengage with school/move on from significant life events like a mental health crisis, substance abuse, history of truancy, or other trauma. The program is expanding its summer program this year — the program offers students frequent outdoor outings where they learn and practice conservation (like how to support and protect estuaries, kayak patrol cleanups of local waterways, etc). Many of these students have never spent time in nature — let alone learned the importance of conservation — and the program gives them a way to heal/grow from their past experiences while doing something educational and productive outdoors. 217609

Caring for the environment helps South King County kids recovering from trauma or hardship find a sense of purpose VIEW

Equity

In an undated image provided by John Timms/DC Comics, Jonathan Kent, the new Superman, who is the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, shares an unexpected kiss with his friend Jay. The new Superman is concerned about the environment, does not shy away from politics and will soon begin a romantic relationship with a male friend. (John Timms/DC Comics via The New York Times) — NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY WITH NYT STORY COMICS SUPERMAN GAY BY GEORGE GENE GUSTINES FOR OCT. 11, 2021. ALL OTHER USE PROHIBITED. —

Superman comes out as bisexual, as DC Comics ushers in a new man of steel

Teacher Diversity

Illustration by Jennifer Luxton / The Seattle Times

Why are 89% of Washington teachers white?

Higher Education

Highline Community College campus.

Most Washington state community colleges will require students to get COVID vaccines this fall

Special Education

Summer school in Seattle: ‘It’s hard for us to know if he is truly accessing education’

There are about 2,500 students and about 250 teachers on campuses this summer. But some parents say a lack of staffing and poor communication from Seattle Public Schools administrators made their children miss educational time.

Tools & Resources

Could you go to college tuition-free in Washington? Here’s how to find out

New law may make it easier for people to become teachers in Washington state

Special Education Glossary, Part 1

Special Education Glossary, Part 2

Three ways you can advocate for students with disabilities and special education in Washington state

Guest Essays

Pitch your idea for improving public education to The Seattle Times Student Voices project

Ignite Education Lab 2019

Speakers, from left, Noah Matisse, Kimberly Harden, Victoria Mott, Ricky Robertson, Tracy Castro-Gill, Kari O’Driscoll, Ryan Healy, Gillian Elliott, Raul Sanchez, Imani Razat, emcee Nathan Gibbs-Bowling, and Shannon Hitch are pictured during the Ignite Education Lab event at Seattle University, Monday, March 11, 2019 in Seattle.

Watch: 11 stories about teaching, learning and growth

Education Lab Interesting Questions

Lakita Strong, center, holds a sign protesting mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for schoolchildren with her sons Jordan, left, and Jayden, right, at the state Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. More than 1,000 people crowded the front steps of the California Capitol to protest Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to require all children to get the coronavirus vaccine to attend public and private schools. (Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee via AP) CASAB101 CASAB101

California accounts for 12% of U.S. students but only 1% of COVID school closures

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Education Lab en español

Seattle school district buses parked in the First Student bus lot at 13525 Lake City Way. The school district isn’t able to provide bus transportation for many of the kids who have gone back to in person school because of a shortage of drivers. 217087

Ed Lab En Español: La falta de servicio de autobús escolar en Seattle deja a decenas de estudiantes en casa VIEW

Discipline

Illinois stopped secluding and restraining students at school. Will other states follow suit?

Illinois lawmakers want federal officials to crack down on states that allow staff to seclude or restrain children at school.