Category Archives: Education

KPCC: Invisible Dropouts: Thousands of California Kids Don’t Get Past Middle School | 89.3 KPCC

Sarah Butrymowicz

Devon Sanford’s mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when he was in the eighth grade. After barely finishing at Henry Clay Middle School in South Los Angeles, he never enrolled in high school. He spent what should have been his freshman year caring for his mother and waiting for police to show up asking why he wasn’t in school.

No one ever came. Continue reading KPCC: Invisible Dropouts: Thousands of California Kids Don’t Get Past Middle School | 89.3 KPCC

California Parents Complain: SexEd Textbook ‘Equivalent To Pornography’ | ThinkProgress

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A California school district has agreed to temporarily shelve a ninth grade sex education textbook after parents complained it included material that’s inappropriate for teenagers, including information about masturbation, orgasms, and erotic touch. The parents asking for the removal of Your Health Today have compared the book to porn.

Continue reading California Parents Complain: SexEd Textbook ‘Equivalent To Pornography’ | ThinkProgress

UPDATED: It’s a miracle #MichaelBrown even graduated from this beleaguered school

UPDATE:
I called Normandy high school today and asked the person who answered the phone to confirm or deny that the entire class of 2014 had to share graduation gowns for their pictures. The person denied the story.

August 14, 2014
Mark Sumner

In Pluto’s diary on the life of Michael Brown, you might notice one detail that’s both touching and disturbing:

Mike’s graduation photograph was taken in March 2014, still many months ahead of when he would be able to graduate in August. Imagine the “why” of this fact:

The grinding poverty in Mike’s world only allowed Normandy High School to acquire two graduation gowns to be shared by the entire class. The students passed a gown from one to the other. Each put the gown on, in turn, and sat before the camera to have their graduation photographs taken. Until it was Mike’s turn.

What kind of American school would have to share robes across the entire senior class? Continue reading UPDATED: It’s a miracle #MichaelBrown even graduated from this beleaguered school

Rahm Emanuel Cuts Schools, Pensions While Preserving Fund For Corporate Subsidies

Months after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said budget constraints forced him to push for pension cuts and mass school closures, an analysis of government documents reveals the city has $1.71 billion in special accounts often used to finance corporate subsidies. While the Emanuel administration has rejected open records requests for details of the subsidies, evidence suggests at least some of them have flowed to companies connected to Emanuel’s campaign donors.

The analysis conducted by the TIF Illumination Project evaluated the city’s 151 tax increment financing, or TIF, districts, which divert a share of property taxes out of accounts obligated to schools and into special accounts under the mayor’s control.

Continue reading Rahm Emanuel Cuts Schools, Pensions While Preserving Fund For Corporate Subsidies

Faces of Neoliberalism: The War on Teachers | PartII

By Ryan Grim and Joy Resmovits

August 4, 2014

WASHINGTON — Every day throughout the summer of 2006, seemingly without end, things just kept getting worse for Washington Republicans. Iraq was spiraling out of control, President George W. Bush was at the depth of his unpopularity. Congressional Republicans were mired in scandal. One was even caught sending dirty instant messages to young boys.

What followed was the Democratic wave of 2006, which handed Congress to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, followed by a second wave ridden by Barack Obama into the White House. Pundits talked about the end of the Republican Party, or at best, a permanent rump status.

Continue reading Faces of Neoliberalism: The War on Teachers | PartII

Lessons In Manhood: A Boys’ School Turns Work Into Wonders | NPR

This summer, All Things Considered has been taking a look at the changing lives of men in America. And that means talking about how the country educates boys.

In Berkeley, Calif., a private, non-profit middle school called the East Bay School for Boys is trying to reimagine what it means to build confident young men. In some ways, the school’s different approach starts with directing, not stifling, boys’ frenetic energy. Continue reading Lessons In Manhood: A Boys’ School Turns Work Into Wonders | NPR

Tim Walker: How Finland Keeps Kids Focused Through Free Play | The Atlantic

An American teacher in Helsinki questioned the national practice of giving 15 minute breaks each hour—until he saw the difference it made in his classroom.

By TIM WALKER

Like a zombie, Sami—one of my fifth graders—lumbered over to me and hissed, “I think I’m going to explode! I’m not used to this schedule.” And I believed him. An angry red rash was starting to form on his forehead.

Yikes, I thought. What a way to begin my first year of teaching in Finland. It was only the third day of school and I was already pushing a student to the breaking point. When I took him aside, I quickly discovered why he was so upset. Continue reading Tim Walker: How Finland Keeps Kids Focused Through Free Play | The Atlantic

The faces of neo-liberalism, Part I: Robert Gibbs, Andrew Cuomo, and Rahm Emanuel

By Rima Regas

The rise of corporate Democrats has gone from a quiet but steady pace since 2010, to a very visible and in-your-face spectacle of late. The face of the party has changed, with some of the old guard gone, but many Democrats who were always at the right-most edge of the party playing more central roles in our parliamentary politics.

In Congress, especially over the past year, we’ve seen deals quietly made by certain Senate Democrats with the GOP, on the backs of the poor and unemployed. The economic agenda of the Democratic party, as a whole, has vanished, as has its vocal support for its blue collar constituencies.  While there are still a few progressives who stump for jobs, the unemployed, our safety net, education, and infrastructure, that talk isn’t backed by any particular legislative effort on the part of the leadership to, at the very least, give the appearance that it is trying to bring these issues back to the fore. Continue reading The faces of neo-liberalism, Part I: Robert Gibbs, Andrew Cuomo, and Rahm Emanuel