California schools can no longer suspend K-8 students for using phones. Will this help or hurt learning? - Los Angeles Times

California schools can no longer suspend K-8 students for using phones. Will this help or hurt learning? - Los Angeles Times

California schools can no longer suspend K-8 students for using phones. Will this help or hurt learning?

In middle school, Anthony Avila would stand up in class, talk to friends when he wasn’t supposed to and sling his legs across a second chair. His disruptive behavior got him sent to the office a lot, where he would sit in silence, often stewing.

In high school, Avila’s math teacher used another tactic. She kept him in class when he acted up and opened her room early so they could talk. When other teachers still sent him to the office, the staff at Huntington Park Institute of Applied Medicine was kind. They asked him to run errands or make copies. Counselors helped him with school work.

“I ended up getting good relationships ... so I felt like I had to respect them and do my work,” said Avila, now 18, whose behavior and grades slowly improved.

This is the kind of scenario that educators and lawmakers hope will unfold across California as schools embark on a new era of student discipline.

A law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom prohibits suspensions for “willful defiance” in grades four and five and bans it in grades six to eight for five years. Actions such as chewing gum, playing with a phone, tapping feet, napping, mouthing off or being out of uniform may still bring consequences — but it won’t be suspension.

Many educators and public interest groups pushed for the law because research shows that black, Native American and Latino students bore the brunt of harsh discipline practices. Suspensions failed to transform students’ behavior and they CONTINUE READING: California schools can no longer suspend K-8 students for using phones. Will this help or hurt learning? - Los Angeles Times

John Thompson: More accountability needed before capital funding for charter schools

More accountability needed before capital funding for charter schools

More accountability needed before capital funding for charter schools

The executive director of the Oklahoma State School Board Association, Shawn Himes, opened the first of the Sept. 11 House Common Education Committee’s interim studies on “Brick and Mortar Charter School Funding,” by explaining how Oklahoma is one of only four states that doesn’t fund capital expenses for its traditional public schools at the state level.

Although Oklahoma has a balanced funding formula for operations, our reliance on local dollars for capital needs could undermine that fair system.

Hime said we are stronger together and should unite, “put ego aside,” and help fund traditional public and charter school capital expenditures. But the day’s presentations underscored how the issue is more complicated. In my opinion, other accountability issues must be addressed before increased capital funding for charter schools should be contemplated.

Presentations draw contrasts

A second interim study, “Real Cost Per Student for Virtual Schools,” began with a presentation by Rebecca Wilkinson, the executive director of the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual School Board. Wilkinson referenced a paper making the incomprehensible claim, “The operating costs of online programs are about the same as the operating costs of a regular brick-and-mortar school.”

It found the per-student cost of a full-time virtual school is between 93 and 98 percent of a traditional school. Actually, this finding is based on a “cost model” — which I’d call a wish list — where, for instance, the teacher-student ratio is almost 80 percent more than the national average, and salaries and support services are far greater than what exist in CONTINUE READING: More accountability needed before capital funding for charter schools

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Duke University's Department of African & African American Studies Celebrates 50th Anniversary with Speaker Series Highlighting Black Studies Alumni | NewBlackMan (in Exile) - https://www.newblackmaninexile.net/2019/10/duke-universitys-department-of-african.html

GQ: DMX Breaks Down His Most Iconic Tracks

by Mark Anthony Neal / 3h

'Rap legend DMX breaks down his most iconic tracks, including 'X Gon' Give it to Ya,' 'Ruff Ryder's Anthem,' 'What's My Name?,' 'Party Up (Up in Here),' and 'Where the Hood At?''-- GQ

Angélique Kidjo Explains Celia Cruz's Rhythmic Singing Style

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4h

'In the course of her career, Celia Cruz recorded over 70 albums and received a dozen Grammy nominations. Her powerful voice and charisma made her one of the most popular Latin musicians of the 20th century, earning her the title the "Queen of Salsa." She always carried her African roots into her music, says singer Angélique Kidjo — and that was especially evident in the uniquely rhythmic way she

The Big Book: Thoughts on Creativity from Lyrical Powerhouse Rakim

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4h

' Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius in the new memoir from Rakim , who joins Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal .

The Smithsonian's Lonnie Bunch: Learning from History

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4h

' Lonnie G. Bunch III is enamored of American history. Last June he was named Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, which he calls "part of the glue that holds the country together." Bunch, who oversaw the creation of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, is in charge of 19 museums, 21 libraries, the National Zoo, 7,000 employees, and a budget of $1.5 billion – and is o

Imagine Room: Rapsody Delivers Dynamic Performance Of "Nina" & "Cleo" from 'EVE'

by Mark Anthony Neal / 4h

Rapsody delivers performances of her songs, "Nina" and Cleo" from her critically acclaimed album Eve on BET's Imagine Room .

SEP 29

Left of Black S10:E2: Kaneesha Parsard on the Literature and Visual Culture of the English Speaking Caribbean in the Aftermath of Slavery and Indentureship

by Mark Anthony Neal / 1d

Left of Black co-host Sasha Panaram ( @SashaPanaram ) is joined in the studio by Kaneesha Parsard ( @ kaneeshaparsard ). Parsard is a Provost Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago where she will begin as an Assistant Professor in 2020. She received her PhD in American studies and African American studies from Yale University in 2017.

SEP 26

Do Or Die: Using Art To Resist Stereotypes Of Black Masculinity

33by Mark Anthony Neal / 4d

'Artist Fahamu Pecou has been wrestling with stereotypes of black masculinity for his entire life. No matter how many degrees he earned or what job he had, he had the sense that he was only seen as a black body. He has always used art as a way to push back, but for a long time he did not touch one particularly charged topic: police-involved shootings of black men. That changed in 2015, after a po

Emmanuel Pratt, Urban Designer | 2019 MacArthur Fellow

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

' Emmanuel Pratt is an urban designer. He is integrating agriculture, education, and design in a resident-driven approach to community development and turning neglected urban neighborhoods into places of growth and vitality.' -- macfound

'Always in Season' Explores the History of Lynching Through a Layered Lens

by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

'"Experts don't really have a consensus on the definition of lynching, but generally it's agreed that a lynching occurs when three or more people gather for a public, racialized murder," filmmaker Jacqueline Olive told WNYC 's cultural critic Rebecca Carroll , on the subject of her new documentary film, Always in Season . The film, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year and earned a specia

SEP 25

#BackChannel: Chappelle Punches Down, Billy Porter & Jharrel Jerome Stand Tall and A Black Lady Sketch Show Takes Risk

33by Mark Anthony Neal / 5d

On this episode of #BlackChannel featuring State of Things contributors Natalie Bullock Brown and Mark Anthony Neal , the duo discuss the Emmy Award winning performances of Billy Porter ( Pose ) and Jharrel Jerome ( When They See Us ), as well as the marginalization of Black women in the television industry. Bullock Brown and Neal also highlight new recordings from Missy Elliot ( Iconography ) an

Kelly Lytle Hernández, Historian | 2019 MacArthur Fellow

300+by Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

' Kelly Lytle Hernández is a historian. She is challenging long-held beliefs about the origins, ideology, and evolution of incarceration and immigrant detention practices in the United States.' -- macfound

Saidiya Hartman, Literary Scholar and Cultural Historian | 2019 MacArthur Fellow

3Kby Mark Anthony Neal / 6d

' Saidiya Hartman is a literary scholar and cultural historian. She is tracing the afterlife of slavery in modern American life and rescuing from oblivion stories of sparsely documented lives that have been systematically excluded from 

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Alert: Early Bird Registration Ends Today! - Network For Public Education

Alert: Early Bird Registration Ends Today! - Network For Public Education

Alert: Early Bird Registration Ends Today!

Don’t let the Early Bird fly away! 

Register now and take advantage of our Early Bird reduced rate by clicking here and then entering this code: NPEAction2020EB. Today is the last day for the special rate.

After you sign up for the conference, be sure to register for a reduced rate room ($169) at our conference hotel. Our rooms will go fast! To reserve your hotel room click here.

Your registration fee will include breakfast and lunch on Saturday and brunch on Sunday.

To get that Early Bird rate, use this special code: NPEAction2020EB when you register today.

Alert: Early Bird Registration Ends Today! - Network For Public Education

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Please tune in tomorrow at 10:00 EST when I speak with Jennifer Levin of the Education Law Center and Katherine Dunn of the Southern Poverty Law Center on the new initiative they are leading to stop vouchers called Public Funds Public Schools​.  Call in during the show and enter the dialogue on this important topic. You can listen Wednesday Oct 2, 2019 10:00 AM est on WBAI 99.5 fm & online at www.wbai.org.

Thanks for all that you do!

Alert: Early Bird Registration Ends Today! - Network For Public Education