7/24/2014 – Education ‘Reform’ Loses The Netroots
July 24, 2014 Subscribe
THIS WEEK: Voters Overwhelmingly Want Pre-K Expansion … Teacher Dropout Crisis … Segregation Feeds Tea Party … Jeb Bush Policies Hit Obstacles … Choice Is About Sorting
Lynn Community Takes Stand for Immigrant Students
The small city of Lynn, MA, has become a local hotspot in the national immigration debate. On July 22, dozens of local parents, students and community members rallied on the steps of Lynn City Hall to protest city officials trying to scapegoat young immigrant students for the ails of a long-underfunded school system. For education advocates and organizers, the small city of Lynn, MA,
Education ‘Reform’ Loses The Netroots
By Jeff Bryant
“At this year’s Netroots Nation conference … those whose white-hot enthusiasm for presidential politics may be dampened by the inevitability of a Hillary Clinton candidacy, there may be no more promising alternative channel than the raging fight for public education.”
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KIDS COUNT Data Book: Only "Fragile Progress" in 25 Years
In the 25 years since the start of the Annie E. Cassie Foundation's KIDS COUNT project, America has made only "fragile progress" in improving the well-being of and opportunities available to young children and students. In the 25 years since the start of the Annie E. Cassie Foundation's KIDS COUNT project, America has made only "fragile progress" in improving the w
Netroots Nation Takes on School Discipline
Across the country, students, parents, and educators are organizing to change their school districts’ zero tolerance policies – and they’re winning. At the 2014 Netroots Nation conference in Detroit last weekend, advocates and organizers discussed the victories and continuing challenges in the movement for school discipline reform. Across the country, students, parents, and educators
NEWS AND VIEWS
Poll: 70 Percent Of Voters Support Federal Preschool Expansion
The Washington Post
“Seven in 10 voters, including 6 in 10 Republicans, support a plan for the federal government to expand quality early childhood programs for low- and middle-income families … State governors and mayors from both political parties have made strides in expanding preschool in recent years, but Obama’s proposal to increase federal funding to help states improve access to preschool has stalled in Congress … On a list of national priorities, voters ranked ‘ensuring children get a strong start’ second only to ‘increasing jobs and economic growth’ and above ‘improving the quality of our public schools’ and ‘reducing the tax burden on families’ … Key groups of swing voters also supported the proposal, including 80% of Hispanics, 75% of moderates and 72% of suburban women.”
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The Teacher Dropout Crisis
NPR
“Roughly half a million U.S. teachers either move or leave the profession each year… This kind of turnover comes at a steep cost … up to $2.2 billion a year … at-risk students suffer the most. Nearly 20% of teachers at high-poverty schools leave every year, a rate 50% higher than at more affluent schools. That’s one of every five teachers, gone by next September … Variety of reasons for the turnover, including low salaries and a lack of support … Most likely to quit are also the least experienced: 40 – 50% of new teachers leave within their first five years on the job.”
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Tea Party Support Linked To Educational Segregation, New Study Shows
Notre Dame News
“Statistical analyses show that even after accounting for many other factors, Tea Party organizations were much more likely to form in counties with high levels of residential segregation based on education levels … College graduates were more likely to indicate support for the Tea Party if they resided in a county characterized by high levels of educational segregation … ‘The commonly held view that individuals and families who are struggling to get by are undeserving of government assistance is reinforced when the highly educated have limited contact with those who have been less fortunate.’”
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Jeb Bush’s Reading Rule Loses Ground
Politico
“It was one of Jeb Bush’s signature initiatives as Florida governor: Require third-graders to repeat the year if they flunked a reading test … Now, political pressure to dilute the policies is building … In states that have already tried Common Core exams, as many as 70% of students failed, raising fears of mass retentions among teachers, parents and children … Studies have shown that retention leads to loss of self-esteem, a decreased feeling of belonging at school and negative effects on college attendance. A Harvard University study found that any positive effects of retention fade out over time. Data from Florida show that about a third of students held back for a year in 2003 never became proficient at reading … Oklahoma Education Association President Linda Hampton said … the union opposes the law and argues that retention can prove ‘detrimental to a child’s academic growth … emphasis our state has placed on a single test, on a single day to determine whether or not our 8- and 9-year-olds are prepared for the next grade level is unfair and disappointing … Education professionals, in partnership with parents, are better equipped to assess a child’s ability to read.’”
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The Big Sort: How Chicago’s School Choice System Is Tracking Kids Into Different High Schools Based On Achievement
The Hechinger Report
“Chicago is trying to expand the number of ‘quality school options’ and offer students a choice of where to go to school … An unintended consequence of the choice system: students of different ability levels are being sorted into separate high schools … The findings … raise questions about whether the city’s school choice system is actually creating better schools, or whether it’s simply sorting certain students out and leaving the weakest learners in separate, struggling schools … New York City and New Orleans see a similar dynamic … High-performing students are like gold in a school. Everybody does better around them – including other high-performing students. And it’s not just about test scores. The biggest predictor of whether a school is safe and orderly is students’ academic achievement. Having top performers makes an entire school easier to run.”
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