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Articles by Bekah McNeel

Bekah McNeel is a correspondent at The 74, covering the impact of the pandemic on America's education system.

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Articles by Bekah McNeel

Video: How Rapper Darryl “DMC” McDaniels Is Helping Kids Grow By Embracing Their Emotions

Uvalde Hero: Amid the Chaos at Robb Elementary, the Bus Driver Who Saved Lives

For A Small Rural Texas Town, the Solution to a Teacher Shortage Is a Motel

Trauma Counselors Across Texas Travel to Uvalde

Amid Spike in Teen Drinking During Pandemic, Schools Turn to Alateen For Help

Remembering How to Be Friends: Amid COVID Isolation, One School Is Using Talking Circles to Help Kids Reconnect

Uvalde’s Robb Elementary: Before Tragedy, a Legacy in Advancing Equal Education

A Reporter’s Burden and a Parent’s Anxiety: The Grief of Uvalde

A Cry for Help from Teen Boys in Austin is Answered

The Band Teacher Who Kept His School Community Connected Through COVID’s Chaos

San Antonio’s New Superintendent Leads With Empathy

Texas Doubles Down on School Reform: Key District Taps NYC, LA Vet as New Chief

Multiple Skills Needed to Close Pandemic Gaps

Texas Teens Say Book Bans Are Pointless

What’s Next for San Antonio ISD?

Texas Science Museums Create COVID-safe STEM Experiences

Houston Space Programs Keeping STEM Dreams Alive

Second Graders’ Art Work Illuminates Their Biggest Pandemic Challenges

Mental Health Hubs Take on Second Pandemic

Educators Prepare for “Second Pandemic” with Mental Health First Aid

For Maryland’s New Schools Chief Choudhury, State Anti-Poverty ‘Blueprint’ Draws on Deep Expertise Identifying, Aiding Low-Income Students in Texas

Latest Front in the Reading Wars Plays Out During Pandemic in Texas

San Antonio Ed. Innovator Mohammed Choudhury Named Maryland Schools Supe

Texas to Pay Teachers $100,000 to Fight COVID Learning Loss in Hard Hit Schools

Reinventing School Discipline in Texas: Dallas to End Most Student Suspensions

Texas Mom Mobilizes on Masks

One Texas Town, Two School Districts, Clashing Mask Policies: How Science and Politics Collided in New Braunfels’ Classrooms

Texas Teachers Go Door to Door as Kids Disappear From Remote Classes

200 Schools, Universal Weekly COVID Screening: How ‘Assurance Testing’ Has Kept Thousands of Texas Students in Classrooms

How Texas Teachers Are Prioritizing Basic Skills as Instruction Time Gets Crunched During the Pandemic

One Year Ago, 90% of San Antonio’s 4-Year-Olds Were Enrolled in School: Now, an Ambitious Texas Early Ed Program is Crumbling Under the Weight of the Pandemic

Teaching the ‘Roomers’ and the ‘Zoomers:’ No Small Task for Elementary School Teachers

Hunger Pains: Keeping Kids Fed During the Pandemic Stretches the Limits of Bureaucracy

To Bring Back Struggling Students, Districts Campaign to Convince Parents Schools are Safe

PreK 4 SA, San Antonio’s Popular City-Run Pre-K Program, Wins Another 8 Years

Any Which Way You Fund It, Pre-K Scores Four Big Wins For 4-Year-Olds Across U.S.

Educators Wanted Vulnerable Students To Return First for In-Person Learning, But a Racial Divide Spoiled Their Plans

To Fight COVID-19, Some San Antonio Schools Are Relying On Private Funds to Step Up Contact Tracing and Assurance Testing

San Antonio Teen Leads Campaign for More Time Off to Vote Safely During Pandemic

The Kids Are All Right at Home: Texas, North Carolina, Nebraska Seeing Signs of a Pandemic Homeschooling Boom

Helping Students With Remote Learning — By Also Aiding Their Parents With Wraparound Services: How One Texas Community Center Is Helping Families Facing Impossible Choices

A Tiny School in Texas With a Cautionary COVID-19 Tale: Teachers, Epidemiologists Say San Antonio Campuses Need More Aggressive Plan to Prevent Virus Outbreaks

From I.T. Guy to MVP: The Pandemic Thrusts San Antonio ISD’s Ken Thompson Into the Center of the Action

Without a Green Light From Texas State Officials, Superintendents Move Ahead to Safely Open Schools for Kids Who Need Them Most

Drive-Thru Meet-the-Teacher, Netflix Intermissions and Lots of Troubleshooting Emails: What the First Day of (Remote) School Looked Like in One Texas District

Texas School Advocates Launch Campaign Urging Parents to Keep Kids in Public School, Legislators to Protect Funding During the Pandemic

These Three Principals Are Opening New Schools This Fall. If That Sounds Challenging, You’re Right

The Pandemic Is Breaking the Bonds Between Texas Families and Their Beloved Public Schools: Why Some Are Stepping Off the Reopening Roller Coaster and Unenrolling

Tiny Cities Run by Children Inside Texas Schools Are Teaching Social-Emotional and Project-Based Learning — Along With How to Pay Your Taxes

Immigrant Educators Helping Immigrant Students Through Coronavirus: Maria Rocha, One of 2,000 Texas Teachers Covered by DACA, Is Turning Her Anxiety Into Advocacy

San Antonio Superintendents Had a Plan to Safely Open Schools to Kids Who Needed Them Most. The Governor Had Other Ideas

Lessons From a Global Reckoning: With Coronavirus and a Racial Justice Movement Raging in Texas, Educators Say State’s Curriculum Needs Overhaul

Closing San Antonio’s Digital Divide: In the City’s Poorest and Most Segregated Neighborhoods, Public School Students to Get In-Home Internet

For the Corona Family, Normal Life Faded Away as COVID-19 Wiped Out Jobs, School and Other Daily Routines They Relied On

Texas Districts Were Rolling Out Big Pre-K Expansion Plans When COVID-19 Hit. Will That Momentum Be Enough to Save Them?

To Reconnect Black Kids and Teens to the Great Outdoors, San Antonio’s Alex Bailey Is Teaching Skills — and Confronting Structural Racism

Texas’s Missing Students: Weeks After Closures, Schools in San Antonio Still Couldn’t Locate Thousands of Kids. How One Band Director Finally Tracked Down His Musicians

College Counseling in the Time of Coronavirus: With Less Pomp and Uncertain Circumstances, San Antonio Seniors Cling to Elusive College Dreams

‘This Is a Revolution’: Student Activists Across the Country Take Their Place — on the Front Lines and Behind the Scenes — in Historic Protests

Texas Teacher Grapples With Family’s COVID-19 Illness and Continuing Students’ Education; ‘Just Trying to Do the Most We Can’

In Texas, School Bus Driver and ‘Daddy’s Girl’ Grieves Father’s Death, Finds Solace Serving Her Students Through Crisis

When COVID-19 and Economic Fallout Put Millions of Kids in Unsafe Places, Communities in Schools Went In After Them

Superintendent of San Antonio’s Largest, Most Diverse District Weighs Reopening Schools First for Students Who Need Them Most

Oral History — 5 School Leaders, 4 Weeks & the Biggest Education Crisis of Their Careers

From Communities in Schools Alumnus to Its New CEO, Rey Saldaña Has a Great Backstory — but That Shouldn’t Mean Other Struggling Students Have To

Latino Superintendents: ‘Going Back to Normal’ Not Their Goal After Coronavirus Crisis

Being Kind Online Takes On New Urgency as Socially Isolated Kids and Teens Find It’s Their Only Destination

74 Interview: NYC First Lady Chirlane McCray on Spreading Social-Emotional Learning to the Nation’s Mayors and What Being Bullied in School Made Her Realize

Educators Using 2019 Diversity Report to Show Districts How They Can Better Support Teachers of Color

The Special Relationship: Parents and Teachers Are Critical Partners in the Work of Social-Emotional Learning

How to Avoid the Ghost of the Common Core in Social-Emotional Learning’s Rollout? Emphasize Local Control and Community Connection, Experts Say

74 Interview: CASEL President on the Importance of Maintaining Quality in Social-Emotional Learning, Paying Attention to the Adults and Work as the Next SEL Frontier

All In on School Climate: New Searchable Database Lets Nevada Parents and Teachers Compare School Culture & Students’ SEL Skills

John King Talks Teacher Diversity, Student Engagement, Budgeting, School Autonomy — and ‘Fauxtonomy’ — at Texas Education Reform Summit

The Mandatory-Expulsion Maze: Giving a Friend an Adderall Derailed an Honor Student’s Academic Career. He’s Not the Only One

More Student Funding, Full-Day Pre-K, Teacher Raises & a Longer School Year — Inside Texas’s $11.6 Billion School Finance Reform Law

4.5 Million Young People Nationwide Are Not Working or in School. How Cities Are Working to Get Them Back on Track — & Avoid the School-to-Prison Pipeline

‘Kids Are Being Arrested, but They Don’t Ask, “Are You OK?”’: San Antonio Students Advocate for Their Own Mental Health, but the Odds Are Against Them