Teachers unions, financial aid, Columbine 20 years later: What Education Lab is reading this week

It wasn’t the Mueller Report, but we did read some things this week.

We’re sharing the “What We’re Reading” section from our weekly Education Lab newsletter right here.

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Here’s what we’re reading this week.

Education Lab is a Seattle Times project that spotlights promising approaches to persistent challenges in public education. The Seattle Foundation serves as fiscal sponsor for Education Lab, which is supported by grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Comcast Washington and City University of Seattle. Learn more about Ed Lab. 

Are teachers unions helping or hurting schools? Two new studies offer different insights on a polarizing question. The first study found that stronger unions mean more money for schools, which often means better learning for students. The second study, examining weakened teachers unions in Wisconsin, found what some call a “war on teachers” there hasn’t stopped college students from wanting to go into education. Read more of the insights from Chalkbeat.

Struggling to calculate the cost of college — or to even understand the dozens of terms involved in the process? National Public Radio has created a guide to common financial aid terms to help you out. If you’ve ever struggled to understand the differences between federal Pell Grants, work-study and Expected Family Contributions, this one’s for you.

Twenty years after the Columbine High School shooting, some survivors are now parents themselves. How do you talk to your own children about lockdown drills and mass shootings after such a horrific experience, especially if you still live with PTSD? Memorizing a script helps when you’re in front of an audience, two survivors who are now married told The Atlantic, but it’s different when it’s time to tell your kids: “As their children grow up, these parents are navigating how to talk to them about the day their high-school memories were corrupted by gun violence.”