A Ruling In Favor Of Friedrichs Will Hurt Education
THIS WEEK: Childhood Trauma Hurts … Ethnic Studies Increase Overall Achievement … Why School Suspensions Decline … No To School Metal Detectors … Surge In College Debt Forgiveness
TOP STORY
A Ruling In Favor Of Friedrichs Will Hurt Education
By Jeff Bryant
“Earlier this month, news about a US Supreme Court case Friedrichs v California Teachers Association raised concerns for progressives everywhere – and for good reason … Should the court decide to uphold the plaintiffs in the case, and not the teachers union … please understand the judges’ decision won’t just hurt teachers’ paychecks and their rights to organize and speak out. It will hurt our children’s education.”
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NEWS AND VIEWS
Kindergartners With Traumatic Life Experiences Struggle More in School
HealthDay
“Childhood traumas of various sorts can cause kindergartners to struggle in class as well as life … Those with difficult experiences up until age 5 had math and reading difficulties and difficulty focusing in kindergarten, and were also more likely to have social problems and to be aggressive toward others. The experiences included neglect or physical, sexual or psychological abuse. They also included living in a household with domestic abuse or with a household member who was in jail or prison, had a mental illness or had an addiction or substance abuse problem … Caregivers of just over 1,000 children found that slightly more than half of the kids had faced at least one out of nine adverse experiences; 12% had experienced three of them.”
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Study Suggests Academic Benefits To Ethnic Studies Courses
Phyz.org
“A high school ethnic studies course examining the roles of race, nationality and culture on identity and experience boosted attendance and academic performance of students at risk of dropping out … Students not only made gains in attendance and grades, they also increased the number of course credits they earned to graduate … The findings come as educators and policymakers in Arizona, California, Oregon, and other states debate adding or taking away such curriculum … Ethnic studies proponents contend the courses can help address academic disparities … Opponents have argued they are anti-American.”
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Suspensions And Expulsions Decline As Districts Adopt Alternatives, State Says
EdSource
“The number of students expelled and suspended from California schools continued to decline in 2014-15 as more school districts focused on resolving behavior issues without taking students out of class … Advocates praised the decline in punitive discipline and called for continued training and support for school employees … In addition … The state’s education finance system introduced in July 2013, known as the Local Control Funding Formula, has been ‘a game changer’ for school discipline practices … The funding accountability plan requires school districts to track measures of school climate, including rates of suspensions and expulsions and results from student, parent and staff surveys about the welcoming environment on campus.”
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Do Metal Detectors in Schools Do More Harm Than Good?
The Atlantic
“Almost as many New York City students run the gauntlet of X-ray machines each day as pass through the scanners at busy Miami International Airport. And the procedure is numbingly similar … The daily ritual is borne disproportionately by students of color … The metal detectors were first installed in the early 1990s when crime rates were much higher and have stayed in place even as crime in the public schools has fallen 48% over the past 10 year … In the approximately 3 million scans conducted in the first two months of this school year, only a tiny number of contraband items were discovered … Some school officials believe the daily security checks actually lead to behavior problems among the students … The metal detectors send a message to the students that ‘we don’t trust you. And even if we trusted you, we don’t necessarily trust the guy behind you.’”
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Thousands Apply To U.S. To Forgive Their Student Loans, Saying Schools Defrauded Them
The Wall Street Journal
“Americans are flooding the government with appeals to have their student loans forgiven on the grounds that schools deceived them with false promises of a well-paying career … In the past six months, more than 7,500 borrowers owing $164 million have applied to have their student debt expunged under an obscure federal law … The law forgives debt for borrowers who prove their schools used illegal tactics to recruit them, such as by lying about their graduates’ earnings … The program could prove to be one of the few lifelines for hundreds of thousands of Americans buried in student debt … The surge in applications reflects the growing savvy of student activists, who discovered the law last year after it had largely sat dormant for two decades.”
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