Read Me, Please! My favorites from 2015.
If you’re like me, you have a small stack of magazines you’ve promise yourself you’ll get to…eventually. You just can’t seem to find the time to read the cover story that made you buy the magazine or the news article that piqued your interest or the webpage that you bookmarked.
And it’s understandable why the stack keeps growing. There is so much good stuff out there to read, it’s difficult to find the time to get to everything. But do not fear! I’ve done the work for you! By combing through thousands of pages of NEA Today, I have compiled the must-read list of 2015.
From closing the achievement gaps and charter schools to school privatization efforts and social justice, plus everything in between, these articles should not be missed. So whether you’re taking a plane, train or automobile back home from your Thanksgiving feast, make sure to read the amazing stories from the past year.
Achievement Gaps
Debate around the achievement gap is usually dominated by issues such as urban poverty, segregation, and school funding. These factors unquestionably have an enormous impact on student outcomes, but why do disparities persist at well-funded, diverse and high-achieving suburban schools? NEA Today sat down with the authors of a new eye-opening book on the topic to discuss their findings.
Charter Schools
There’s no denying the dramatic growth of charter schools—taxpayer-funded but privately-managed schools that are exempt from some of the rules governing traditional public schools. During the 2007-08, 1.3 million students attended 4,300 charters. By the 2013-14 school year, those numbers had shot up to 2.57 million students in 6,440 schools. In 2015, 600 new schools opened their doors.
College Debt
As states cut funding for public colleges, families are stuck with the bill. A moderate budget for a student attending an in-state, four-year public university was $23,410 last year, according to the College Board. That includes tuition, food, and textbooks, and adds up to nearly half the average U.S. household income. Many families borrow to pay. But that’s a familiar story by now: Student debt in the U.S. topped an absurd $1.29 billion this year.
Higher Education
Funding cuts also lead to program cuts—often in the kind of student services that boost graduation rates, like math assistance centers or academic advisors. Sometimes entire academic departments disappear. (Like, for instance, the 14 majors at the University of Southern Maine that suddenly ceased to exist this year, including geoscience and New England studies. Fifty faculty members—about one out of every five or six on campus—are gone too.)
Inspiring Educators
The 1950s brought 33 million teachers to the nation’s public schools. At age 22, Lillian Orlich was one of them. Recruited by Prince William County Virginia public school system, she took a train from Manhattan to Manassas, “I struck out on my own,” Orlich said. Now 87, this dedicated guidance counselor has helped generations of students find their way, and she has no plans to retire.
LGBT Issues
Most students are on autopilot when it comes to the daily routine of high school. They file into first period, go from class to class, banter in the hallway, eat lunch, and take the occasional bathroom break. The transitions are processes that for the most part require little thought. For James van Kuilenburg, it’s slightly different, as one of those transitions could very well be the most important decision he will make that day. What’s at stake? His safety.
Literacy
As classroom demographics continue to change dramatically—not only in terms of ethnic diversity, but also in linguistic diversity, sexual orientation and identification, and physical and learning disabilities—there is a growing need to diversify school and classroom book collections.
School Privatization
For schools, privatizing services means that trained, skilled and loyal ESPs would be replaced by workers with less experience, resulting in a lower quality of service. Even worse, students would be exposed to what Andrew Campbell, a custodian with the Waterford School District for 28 years, calls “stranger danger.”
Social Justice
In 2010, more than 3 million students were suspended from school, or double the level of suspensions in the 1970s. Meanwhile, more than a quarter-million were “referred” to police officers for misdemeanor tickets, very often for offenses that once would have elicited a stern talking-to.
Union Activism
Social justice activism isn’t new. Rank-and-file union activists have advocated for social justice for years and it’s based on the same principles organized labor has always championed: Solidarity, equality, democracy, and justice. But the country has entered a seminal moment, and this model of unionism could hold the key to preserving public education as a right for all Americans.
Read Me, Please! My favorites from 2015. - Lily's Blackboard:
