Oct 14, 2020, 5:13 PM
(From NPR) There has been a 16% drop in kindergarten enrollment among U.S. public schools this fall compared to enrollment numbers in October 2019, according to a study of U.S. public schools by NPR. Despite some reports of private schools gaining students in areas where public schools are only offering virtual or hybrid schooling, researchers say the enrollment declines schools are seeing can’t just be attributed to affluent families choosing other options. Rather, experts say more and more parents are choosing to have their children delay or skip kindergarten because of the coronavirus pandemic. The opt outs, combined with huge declines in preschool enrollment, are raising worries about the long-term effects of so much lost early education.
(From The New York Times) Princeton University has agreed to pay nearly $1 million in back wages to female professors, following a U.S. Department of Labor review of staff wages that found disparities between male and female professors. The university did not admit any wrongdoing, but it agreed to pay back the 106 female professors who were found to have been inadequately compensated to “avoid lengthy and costly litigation and its impact on the faculty and the university,” according to university officials. Princeton has also agreed to take a number of steps to ensure pay equity in the future, including reviews of faculty salaries at the time of hiring and during annual reviews, actively hiring women in fields where they are traditionally poorly represented and encouraging women to serve in leadership positions.
(From The Chronicle of Higher Education) As the pandemic disrupted student life, mental health experts feared a worsening crisis among young adults. But early data from campus counseling centers challenge the idea that colleges are on the brink of a mental health disaster. While the majority of counseling directors (81%) reported increased student loneliness, the number of students seeking counseling services dropped by 29% with the first four weeks of fall, according to data from The Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors. Researchers suggested that more students may be taking classes at home and might be accessing mental-health services locally and not on campus. Alternatively, some students might be feeling less stressed because they’re surrounded by a support network of family members.
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