A Gadfly’s Dozen: Top 13 Education Articles of 2018 (By Me) | gadflyonthewallblog

A Gadfly’s Dozen: Top 13 Education Articles of 2018 (By Me) | gadflyonthewallblog

A Gadfly’s Dozen: Top 13 Education Articles of 2018 (By Me)

I’m not going to mince words.

This year, 2018, has been a monster.

We’ve been fighting the dumbest and most corrupt President of our lives – Donald Trump. And we’ve been making progress.

Thanks to the midterm election blue wave in the U.S. House, Trump will finally have a check on his power.

We have more black and brown representatives, more women, more nationalities, ethnicities and faiths in the halls of power than ever before.

Charter schools and vouchers are more unpopular today than at any other point in history. High stakes testing is on the decline. And everywhere you look educators and education activists are being heard and making a difference.

But it’s taken an incredible toll on the activist community.

We have had to be out there fighting this ridiculous crap day-in-day-out 365 days a year.

And even then, we’ve suffered devastating losses – family separations at the border, children dying in detention, an increase in hate crimes and gun deaths, all while climate change runs rapidly out of control.

I wish I felt more hopeful. But as I cast my eyes back on the year that was, I’m struck with a sense of bone-deep despair.

I am confident Trump will go down and he will take so many with him.

But the forces of regression, prejudice and stupidity that forced him upon us don’t appear to be going anywhere.

Behind Donald is another Trump waiting to take his place. And behind him another CONTINUE READING: A Gadfly’s Dozen: Top 13 Education Articles of 2018 (By Me) | gadflyonthewallblog

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CREAM AND CHERRIES: Certain Students Not Encouraged to Apply to Charter Schools | Education News | US News

Certain Students Not Encouraged to Apply to Charter Schools | Education News | US News

Tailoring the Charter School Population
Students with behavior problems, low achievement or special needs are sometimes not encouraged to apply to charter schools.

CHARTER SCHOOLS AND public schools of choice – those in school districts that allow students to choose from any number of schools instead of zoning them to just one – are less likely to encourage students with a history of poor behavior, low academic achievement or special needs to apply.

Charter schools, in particular, were less likely to encourage students with a potentially significant special need to apply.

That's the latest research published Thursday by Peter Bergman, an assistant professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, and Isaac McFarlin Jr., assistant professor at University of Florida's College of Education.

The researchers sent emails from fictitious parents to nearly 6,500 schools in 29 states and the District of Columbia, asking whether any student is eligible to apply to the school and how to do so. Each email signaled either a disability status, poor behavior, high or low prior academic achievement, or no characteristic at all. The researchers also varied students' implied race, household structure and gender.

"We find that schools respond less often to messages regarding students whom schools may perceive as more challenging to educate," the researchers concluded.

The baseline response rate was 53 percent. But emails signaling a student with a potentially restrictive special need were 5 percentage points less likely to receive a response; emails signaling a behavior problem were 7 percentage points less likely to receive a response; and emails signaling prior low academic achievement were 2 percentage points less likely to receive a response.

Notably, emails indicating good grades and attendance were neither more nor less likely to receive a response.

In one sub-analysis, the researchers compared the responses of charter schools directly to the nearby traditional public schools. Overall, they found the response rates similar with one major exception: If an email signaled a child had a significant special need, charter schools were 7 percentage points less likely to respond while traditional public schools were not more or less likely to respond. CONTINUE READING: Certain Students Not Encouraged to Apply to Charter Schools | Education News | US News