3/26/2014 – When ‘Reform’ Perpetuates Racial Inequity:

3/26/2014 – When ‘Reform’ Perpetuates Racial Inequity

March 26, 2014 Subscribe

THIS WEEK: Demographics Affect Teacher Retention … Education Inequality Is Racial … Taxpayers Fund Creationism … Charter Pay Stays Secret … Community Colleges In Crisis

TOP STORY

How ‘Education Reform’ Perpetuates Racial Disparity

By Jeff Bryant

“America was shocked, shocked, by new data from the U.S. Department of Education last week showing that a child’s education destiny in the nation’s public schools is strongly determined by race … As the information made the rounds from one media outlet to another, exclamations of concern ensued. Most telling though was that few people bothered to ask how such overt racial disparity came about and why – and what to do to change the trajectory.”
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NEWS AND VIEWS

Report: As Teacher Demographics Change, Districts Must Prioritize Retention

Education Week

“Between 1988 and 2008, annual teacher attrition increased 41%. Nearly one third of teachers exit the field within the first three years … In urban school systems… more than two thirds of teachers in those schools leave within 5 years. The attrition rate in high poverty schools is 50 percent greater than it is in other schools. Teachers of color leave at much higher rates than white teachers … Teacher attrition costs school districts more than $7 billion to recruit and induct new teachers … Because lower-income urban schools have a particularly hard time with teacher retention, their students on average receive weaker instruction … A national survey of teachers found that over half planned to leave the profession; new teachers who entered the profession through non-traditional routes, including Teach For America, were even more likely to express this outlook.”
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School Data Finds Pattern of Inequality Along Racial Lines

The New York Times

“Racial minorities are more likely than white students to be suspended from school, to have less access to rigorous math and science classes, and to be taught by lower-paid teachers with less experience … Black students are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students. A quarter of high schools with the highest percentage of black and Latino students do not offer any Algebra II courses, while a third of those schools do not have any chemistry classes. Black students are more than four times as likely as white students – and Latino students are twice as likely – to attend schools where one out of every five teachers does not meet all state teaching requirements … Even as early as preschool, black students face harsher discipline than other students.’”
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Special Report: Taxpayers Fund Creationism In The Classroom

POLITICO

“Taxpayers in 14 states will bankroll nearly $1 billion this year in tuition for private schools, including hundreds of religious schools that teach Earth is less than 10,000 years old, Adam and Eve strolled the garden with dinosaurs, and much of modern biology, geology and cosmology is a web of lies. Now a major push to expand these voucher programs is under way from Alaska to New York, a development that seems certain to sharply increase the investment … About 250,000 students take advantage of vouchers and tax-credit scholarships … up about 30% from 2010. Some states have built growth into their laws … Voucher proponents often describe the programs as a chance for students to escape failing public schools and obtain a better education. Yet the review of school websites and curricula found that some voucher schools openly declare that academics come second to their chief mission: training students to obey and glorify the Lord.”
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Can NC Charter School Pay Stay Secret?

The Charlotte Observer

“North Carolina charter schools don’t have to disclose employee salaries like other public schools do, even though they receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public money, state education officials said … The state is spending $304.5 million for 127 charter schools that serve about 58,700 students, with counties required to kick in millions more. Twenty-six more charter schools will open in August … People active in education and government … had always assumed that charter schools had to disclose the same salary information that school districts do … But leaders of the state’s two charter school associations … said charter schools’ spending gets adequate oversight through required audits and monitoring by the state Office of Charter Schools.”
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Community Of Equals?

Democracy Journal

New Century’s Richard Kahlneberg writes, “Community colleges, where a whopping 11 million students are enrolled, or 44% of all undergraduates in the country… do a great job of providing access but a dismal job of helping students complete degrees … When you ask new community college students what they aspire to, 81% say they would eventually like to get a four-year degree. But the reality is that after six years, only 12% of entering community college students graduate with a four-year degree … Increasing segregation and inadequate funding correlate with disappointing outcomes in community colleges … So how can community colleges recapture the dream of promoting social mobility and American competitiveness? Three strategies look promising: scaling up best practices; reforming the way we fund colleges; and reducing racial and economic segregation of students.”
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