Extra Credit: Culture refuses to be canceled; COVID-19 inequities

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Promising steps toward opening the cultural door much wider. Students at Missouri’s most populous universities can’t major in Latinx studies — but history professor Deborah Cohen is trying to make it happen. Lorgia Garcia Pena discusses her unsuccessful struggle to gain tenure at Harvard University and how she’s working to make a difference now. A task force of more than 70 people at Cabrillo College in California is exploring ways to better serve its Hispanic students. The University of California at San Diego is getting 14 new Latinx studies faculty members, and the University of Nevada, Reno, is adding an LGBTQ studies minor. The Cook Inlet Tribal Council in Anchorage is hosting its fifth annual three-week summer camp to teach American Indian and Alaska Native high-school students about sense of place, Native heritage and Native technology. Psychologist and scholar Marvyn Arévalo Avalos suggests struggling Latinx teens could benefit from culturally tailored mental health services. 

Advice on coping with student apathy. Teachers and students are frustrated and worn out. High-school English teacher Kem Smith in Missouri suggests ways teachers can get themselves, and their students, through the morass.

How one district is helping its mentally struggling students. More than half of schools who responded to a US Department of Education survey said they don’t have adequate access to licensed mental health providers for their students. A South Carolina district has had success bringing private therapists into schools to fill the void. 

Meaningful summer reading. Take a look at these solid, in-depth pieces about the intersection of COVID-19 and education. The Peabody Journal of Education dedicates an entire issue to the inequities, delving into different aspects: ““The Politics of COVID-19 and Educational Inequities,” “The Role of Inequity in School Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic,” “Crisis Upon Crisis: Refugee Education Responses Amid COVID-19,” “School Discipline in the Age of COVID-19: Exploring Patterns, Policy and Practice Considerations” and “The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Recession on Career Preparation During High School.” 

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Diane Benson Harrington is an education and leadership writer at SmartBrief. Reach out to her via email, Twitter or LinkedIn. 

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