A new study reports that only 47 percent of black male students entering high school in the fall of 2003 graduated in 2008. For white males, the graduation rate was 78 percent. But one state, New Jersey, managed to raise its black male graduation rate by nearly 30 points
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – For the past four weeks, high school and university students in Argentina have occupied over 30 high school buildings, several buildings at the University of Buenos Aires, and have occupied the National University of Arts (IUNA) in response to cuts, new reforms and poor building maintenance, among a plethora of social issues and issues that plague education. During this time, multiple squats have been attacked by police forces and the student movement has faced heavy repression. In an effort to unify the movement and to reach out to other struggles, students are organizing for day of action on September 16th.
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Academy Award-winning doc filmmaker Davis Guggenheim at moments became emotional, choking up as he spoke about one of the girls, Daisy, he profiles in his latest film, “Waiting for Superman,” which exposes the breakdown in American education.
“I’ve watched this movie 40 times and I watch Daisy in East Los Angeles and she’s motivated, smart and her father works as a truck driver, while her mother cleans hospital rooms. She wants to be a doctor and her parents have hope. They believe that if they do their part that America will do its part.”
At the core of “Superman” is whether America has the will and courage to face up to its spiraling public education system. While it has been generally accepted that education in America has faced a frightening decline, with statistics to back up that fear, Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) hopes that the film will motivate people to believe that a crisis that may appear intractable can be reformed and improved despite the perception that it is a system stymied by entrenched paralysis.
(Photo by illinijonesey)
Chicago charter operators are speaking out of two side of their mouths. When Chicago charter teachers wanted to organize a union, the private management operators said the usual state labor rules shouldn’t apply because they were private, not public. Now they want to be public in order to get federal money from the edujobs bill.
Jeez. This is a first. The IEA leadership has finally decided to stop endorsing the anti-union Mark Kirk.
Vote in my Chicago mayor issues poll. As Harold Washington always said, “It’s the plan, not the man.”
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Sunday, September 12th 2010, 4:00 AM
A very long time ago, I got a job I didn't deserve: teaching English at one of the best private schools in the country, Harvard School (now Harvard-Westlake) in Los Angeles. I had lucked out and knew it, and I tried to keep my mouth shut and learn as much as I could from my erudite colleagues.
The following year, the school made a second improbable hire. The new English teacher, Mike Piscal, was fresh out of college, a rugby player from New Jersey who couldn't pronounce the names of half the characters in "The Odyssey" and who handed back his first set of sophomore essays printed with red wine stains. During his second week of school he pissed off the chairwoman of the board of trustees (a personage I'd never laid eyes on) so severely he had to go on the lam, spending his free periods in the trainer's office
