Catholic schools in Virginia will receive support from a new diocesan school health and wellness coordinator. Beth Bostwick says part of her work will focus on supporting social and emotional learning for students.

Teachers can tap students' interest in social media to encourage independent reading, asserts Lorraine Radice, director of literacy at Long Beach Public Schools in New York. In this blog post, Radice shares several potential strategies, such as asking students to blog or vlog as they read or create a Bitmoji of a character.

Teachers in the US and UK are eager to return to in-person instruction, according to a report by UserTesting, a human insights platform. In this commentary, the company's Janelle Estes writes that the findings show the challenges teachers have faced amid virtual instruction, including distractions during learning and the lack of human connection.

More than 6 in 10 students are attending schools that offer daily, in-person learning, according to data from school calendar tracking website Burbio. Yet, separate data from the Institute of Education Sciences shows attendance challenges with Black and Indigenous students -- who are more likely in areas most affected by the coronavirus -- with absenteeism rates higher than 10%.

The coronavirus pandemic has altered education in the US -- and highlighted inequities -- according to several data points shared in this article. Points include more students learning remotely, some parents saying they prefer remote instruction and evidence of a digital divide that affects students in every state.

Students at a Catholic school in New York state recently started a GoFundMe campaign to raise $5,000 to support students at a school in Ghana. English teacher Mimi Suh said her students traditionally are assigned community service projects that focus on making an impact locally as well as outside the US.

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