School Safety Coordinators: Best Practices for Preparedness

Hallie Williams, CEI Research Assistant, and Meghan Wenzel, CEI Researcher & Co-Editor

In November 2023, the United States reached a grim milestone – breaking 2022’s record high of school shootings (Modan, 2023). From shared anecdotes to headlines, we can’t look away from the reported increases in student misbehavior and violence, which has likely resulted from isolation and stunted social development during the pandemic, lack of community, and easily accessible guns (Sawchuk, 2021).  

School safety is not a simple story: it requires consideration of many factors, such as community and belonging, support and resources, preventative measures, and general preparedness. Schools should approach safety from a variety of angles – both preventative (e.g., fostering a strong sense of community and belonging for everyone, providing adequate mental health resources for students and teachers) and reactive (e.g., developing procedures and strategies to deal with crises). Ninety-six percent of public schools have a safety plan for active shooter emergencies (Delarosa & Elias, 2023). Whether or not your school uses it, having a safety plan in place is invaluable. 

Invite Everyone to Participate in School Safety 

Even the most normal school days are often rushed, as educators and school staff deal with myriad tasks and responsibilities. To administrators, developing a school safety plan may seem like a low-urgency project. However, there are ways to quickly put together a simple yet effective plan for your school. 

During a school crisis, staff members will need to act quickly to protect students and colleagues and/or to alert safety authorities. Make sure to review the school safety plan during staff meetings on a quarterly basis. To ease the burden on educators, consider enlisting a particular individual(s) whose primary focus is preparing, maintaining, and updating the school’s safety plan... 

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How President Biden's AI Executive Order Could Impact Schools

Meghan Wenzel, CEI Researcher & Co-Editor

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to address some of the biggest challenges we face in education today. It could increase personalized learning by adapting content, pace, and learning modality to individual students’ needs; monitor comprehension; provide real time feedback and coaching; and free up teachers from repetitive tasks to provide in-depth feedback, develop innovative and creative lesson plans, and spend one-on-one time with students (Boltz, 2023; Nagelhout, 2023). However, rapid technological developments inevitably bring risks and challenges as well. And thus far AI development has drastically outpaced policy debates and regulatory frameworks (UNESCO, n.d.).

In an October poll by the National Parents Union of 1,515 parents, 49% said they don’t think their child’s school is well equipped to use AI tools in their education. However, more than two-thirds of parents said the potential benefits of using AI in schools outweigh or are equal to the potential cons (National Parents Union, 2023). 56% of parents believe AI-driven online tutoring programs could provide the most benefit to their students, and 52% of parents said their children could benefit from teachers using AI to tailor curriculum and lesson plans (National Parents Union, 2023).

In late October, President Biden issued an executive order “to ensure America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence (AI)”. The executive order “establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more” (The White House, 2023).

The order calls to establish safeguards and guidance on AI use across the country, however it does not impose consequences on those who fail to comply with the standards...

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Approaches to Indigenous Education from a Canadian Lens

Meghan Wenzel, CEI Researcher & Co-Editor, and Sabrina Chan, Guest Writer

Both the United States and Canada forcibly relocated Indigenous peoples and tried to erase their culture. In recent years, Canada has taken steps to acknowledge and atone for these past injustices, particularly within the realm of education. Canada has made admirable progress, but still has a long road ahead. The United States could learn from Canada’s progress, as well as challenges.  

A Brief History of Indian Residential Schools in Canada 

Beginning in the late 17th century in Canada, shortly after the first French settlers arrived, Christian missionaries established boarding schools to indoctrinate and assimilate Indigenous children and eradicate Indigenous culture. These church-run, government-funded institutions forcibly separated an estimated 150,000 Indigenous children from their families and subjected them to abuse, neglect, and dangerous living conditions (Reconciliation Education, 2023). 

These schools rapidly closed in the 1960s, and many students were relocated into non-Indigenous homes across the United States and Canada. The 1980s saw increased Indigenous activism, and survivors began suing the Canadian government (Reconciliation Education, 2023).

In 2007, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), the largest class action settlement in Canada’s history, acknowledged the damage inflicted on Indigenous peoples by residential schools and established a multi-billion-dollar fund to support former students in their recovery (de Bruin, 2020). IRSSA established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to facilitate reconciliation among former students, their families, and their communities...

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