January 8, 2016
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January 8, 2016
Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice
Cities look at subsidized housing to stem teacher shortages
Associated Press, Education Week
Inspired by the success in the heart of the Silicon Valley of a 70-unit teachers-only apartment complex, school districts in high cost-of-living areas and rural communities that have long struggled to staff classrooms are considering buying or building rent-subsidized apartments as a way to attract and retain teachers amid concerns of a looming shortage.
Equality under the law? Investigating race and the justice system
Michael Gonchar, The New York Times
In this lesson, we ask students to look closely at the 14th Amendment to discern what it means and how it has been interpreted over time. Then, we suggest a variety of Times articles that examine how our criminal justice system treats blacks in comparison to whites. Finally, we encourage students to note inequality in their communities and find ways to take action.
San Francisco Supt. Carranza withdraws from consideration to head L.A. schools
Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
San Francisco schools Supt. Richard Carranza, a leading candidate to head the Los Angeles Unified School District, has pulled out of consideration, according to a spokeswoman for the Bay Area district.
Language, Culture, and Power
Amid growing anti-Muslim sentiment, Education Department urges schools to prevent discrimination
Emma Brown, The Washington Post
The U.S. Education Department is urging the nation’s colleges and K-12 schools to guard against harassment and discrimination based on race, religion or national origin, a response to anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiments that appear to be on the rise.
The new racial generation gap
William H. Frey, Los Angeles Times
In the 1960s, a flip but still effective aphorism summed up the rebelliousness of youth: “Don't trust anyone over 30.” As it turns out, that admonition is a much more fitting bumper sticker for today's student activists than it was 50 years ago. Young people now — the post-millennials — face a far deeper generational divide than the one that separated baby boomers from their parents. And the nation faces a far more serious crisis if that divide cannot be bridged.
When restorative justice in schools works
Emily Richmond, The Atlantic
“People were afraid this was going to be a ‘hippy-dippy-granola, nobody’s-going-to-get-into-trouble’ concept.”
Access, Assessment, and Advancement
Academic success: Are teenagers paying too high a price?
KCRW, Guests: Suniya Luthar, Arizona State University; Julie Lythcott-Haims, Stanford University (formerly); Gwyeth Smith, Jr., independent college counselor; Carolyn Walworth, Palo Alto High School
Silicon Valley's Palo Alto school district is in crisis. The suicide rate for teenagers there is four to five times the national average. This tragic statistic has made the city a symbol of the pressure kids live under in affluent communities to get into elite colleges, to excel at everything, to succeed at all costs. This week, as high school seniors and their families gather around computers racing to finish their college applications, we ask whether the obsession with getting into the best colleges is hurting kids more than helping them, and what schools, parents and students can do lessen the stress.
The rich-poor divide on America’s college campuses is getting wider, faster
Jon Marcus and Holly K. Hacker, The Hechinger Report
It’s a stark view of the reality of American higher education, in which rich kids go to elite private and flagship public campuses while poor kids — including those who score higher on standardized tests than their wealthier counterparts — end up at community colleges and regional public universities with much lower success rates, assuming they continue their educations at all. And new federal data analyzed by the Hechinger Report and the Huffington Post show the gap has been widening at a dramatically accelerating rate since the economic downturn began in 2008.
Reimagining the university: A new paradigm for racial justice
Ajay Nair, Huffington Post
This is my 20th year as an administrator in higher education. I've negotiated hunger strikes, sit-ins, and many other forms of protest and dissent intended to draw needed attention to matters of racial justice. Yet, long before I was an administrator, the demands of student movements on college campuses were much the same as those we see currently. To be sure, some incremental progress has been achieved over the years. Today, however, we have a unique opportunity to reimagine the academy -- not just to move the margins closer to the center but to redefine the very center.
Inequality, Poverty, Segregation
Class differences in child-rearing are on the rise
Claire Cain Miller, The New York Times
The lives of children from rich and poor American families look more different than they have in decades.
These new laws will try to help California's vulnerable students
Sonali Kohli, Los Angeles Times
Among the many state bills that passed in 2015, and take effect Friday, are a number that focus on some of the state’s most vulnerable students —those who are homeless, in foster care, potential victims of sexual assault and those kept out of advanced classes which hurts their ability to go to college.
The superintendent who turned around a school district
NPR Staff
We often hear about school districts that struggle with high poverty, low test scores and budget problems. But one district has faced all of these and achieved remarkable results.
Public Schools and Private $
Are charter schools the new subprime loans? (Think ‘The Big Short’)
Valerie Strauss, The Answer Sheet
With “The Big Short” doing well in theaters — a film about the near collapse of the financial system because of the bursting of a housing and credit bubble — here’s a piece that asks the simple question: “Are charter schools the new subprime loans?” The post by Jennifer Berkshire refers to a new study by four academics titled, “Are We Heading Toward a Charter School ‘Bubble’?: Lessons From the Subprime Mortgage Crisis.” This is a Q & A with Preston C. Green III, the lead author of the report and the John and Carla Klein Professor of Urban Education at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education. Berkshire, a freelance journalist and public education advocate, worked for six years editing a newspaper for the American Federation of Teachers in Massachusetts. She writes the EduShyster blog, where this first appeared.
Billionaire’s $50 million contest aims to modernize high schools
Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle
A national contest with a $50 million prize pool and a billionaire backer has spurred teams across the country to reinvent the American high school, overhauling an antiquated model that hasn’t changed in 100 years.
Other News of Note
6 education stories to watch in 2016
Claudio Sanchez, NPR
Claudio Sanchez is the senior member of the NPR Ed team, with more than 25 years on the education beat. We asked him for his list of the top stories he'll be watching in 2016.
Major education issues to watch in 2016 – and predictions of what to expect
John Fensterwald, EdSource
A safe New Year prediction: EdSource writers won’t sit around Monday mornings wondering if there’s anything to write about. Especially because it is an election year, 2016 will be interesting and intense. Here are nine big issues to follow in 2016, with my predictions about whether anything will change during the year.
Just News from Center X is a free weekly education news blast edited by Jenn Ayscue.
