PODCAST: How do Americans who fought segregation feel about our nation’s schools now? - The Hechinger Report

PODCAST: How do Americans who fought segregation feel about our nation’s schools now? - The Hechinger Report:

PODCAST: How do Americans who fought segregation feel about our nation’s schools now?

Schools remain largely segregated

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared school segregation illegal. But in the decades since Brown v. Board of Education, the nation has largely given up on the idea of desegregating public schools. In 2007, another Supreme Court ruling made it illegal for school districts to prioritize racial balance when deciding who gets to enroll in what school. The decision effectively rolled back Brown.

Today, there are many schools where students are surrounded by kids of the same race.

But for a generation of Americans who rode buses out of their neighborhoods to cross racial lines, there were benefits to desegregation. Valda Jones was in middle school when busing started in Charlotte, North Carolina and she was sent to a white school. Jones told APM producers back in 2007 that people who oppose busing ignore the sacrifice her generation made. “It’s like it was all for nothing,” she said. “We were called some names and had some things thrown at us. But we all learned that the bottom line was we were all students, we were all kids, we could be friends.”

This week on the podcast, we revisit our 2007 documentary Imperfect Revolution: Voices from The Desegregation Era. To hear it, listen to the audio player below or, better yet, subscribe to Educate.

 PODCAST: How do Americans who fought segregation feel about our nation’s schools now? - The Hechinger Report:

NYC Educator: Reformy War on Teacher Professionalism Continues

NYC Educator: Reformy War on Teacher Professionalism Continues:

Reformy War on Teacher Professionalism Continues

Are you seeing a pattern here? Moskowitz and her pals don't want to bother with all that messy certification nonsense. They want to do it their way and take whoever they want. And why not? Their teachers aren't unionized and don't last anyway. When this one goes, just open another can. Reformy Bellwether Education wants to do away with pensions because they're unfair to the people who quit after five minutes. Now here's a piece saying do away with certification altogether.

This is not a new idea. Self-styled education expert Nicholas Kristof suggested thisyears ago. Evidently Merryl Streep and Colin Powell were unqualified to teach.The fact that neither one of them had any desire to teach was neither here nor there. New York City students were being deprived of imaginary teachers, and we needed to address this crisis immediately! The new arguments are not much better, actually.

Funding per student has been rising sharply for decades, resulting in lower class size, but such expenditures seem not to have succeeded.

I don't know what planet this guy lives on, but here in NYC, the opposite has occurred. In fact, there's a lawsuit right now trying to change it. We are the largest district in the country, with the highest class sizes in the state. The writer should be delighted to learn that maximum class size is now pretty much standard. Doubtless he'd revel in our busting-at-the-seams overcrowded school.

The key to successful education is to attract good teachers. We can try to do so by raising teachers’ salaries (as commonly advocated). But this strategy also seems to fail, partly because higher incomes go to both good teachers and bad, giving bad teachers as much incentive as good ones to become and remain teachers.

I don't remember much about economics, but there is the whole supply and demand thing. In fact, as you'll see, it's pretty much the crux of this NYC Educator: Reformy War on Teacher Professionalism Continues:

Cal State Lecturer Reinstated, Victory for Academic Freedom

Cal State Lecturer Reinstated, Victory for Academic Freedom:

Cal State Lecturer Reinstated, Victory for Academic Freedom

CSU lecturer Eric Canin (center) addresses supporters at a rally. Photo: California Faculty Association

A Cal State Fullerton lecturer will return to his job this fall after his union, the California Faculty Association (CFA), laid bare the false accusations made against him by a right-wing student group. His return to the classroom marks a victory for faculty’s rights to academic freedom and free speech, CFA leaders said.

“Make no mistake, CFA will stridently defend our faculty who are under attack by forces who have contempt for the university and for free inquiry,” CFA President Jennifer Eagan told Cal State University trustees last week. “Our successful defense of Dr. Canin speaks to CFA’s commitment to protecting all members of the campus community from the new wave of attacks on academic freedom and free speech…”

Eric Canin, a 20-year instructor of anthropology at Fullerton, had been accused of hitting a student and interfering with the free speech of students during a Campus Republicans counter protest in February. But Canin denied it, and videos taken at the event did not show the alleged assault. (One photo showed Canin in a headlock by a student.) Still, he was quickly vilified on right-wing blogs, which called for his firing.

“When the incident happened, nobody really stopped, especially the students, to ask themselves whether what they said happened actually happened,” Canin told Inside Higher Ed. “The College Republicans put it online, and soon Breitbart had it and The Washington Times and other right-wing media, without a shred of evidence. It’s a simple yet sophisticated use of media … and this is not an isolated incident.”

Fullerton fired Canin after a short investigation, which CFA quickly challenged. The case was assigned an independent arbitrator, who ruled last week that the evidence showed Canin “did not engage in anything resembling a fight and did not have any conscious intent to cause any harm to the students in question.” It is possible, she wrote, that Canin grabbed a protester’s sign—a charge that Canin denies.

The Front Lines of Free Speech

That the “alternative fact,” as Canin calls it, was so quickly accepted and disseminated Cal State Lecturer Reinstated, Victory for Academic Freedom:

Get Woke America Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

Get Woke America Diane Ravitch's blog

A site to discuss better education for all

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Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all: