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January 15, 2016

Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

We begin to know each other

Maiya Jackson, Rethinking Schools

An administrator describes the journey of her K–8 school as it welcomes a transgender 8th grader and the gender transition of another student.

Teachers take a case to the Supreme Court that labor advocates say could devastate unions

Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report

A Supreme Court case argued Monday could significantly weaken government unions across the country. If the justices rule in favor of the plaintiffs in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, every state in the country will essentially become a “right-to-work” state, where employees who choose not to belong to a public union won’t have to give it fees of any kind.

How defunding public sector unions will diminish our democracy: The high stakes of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association

Richard D. Kahlenberg, The Century Foundation

On January 11, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. The case pits the right of public employees to band together and form effective unions to pursue the common interests of workers against the free speech rights of dissenting public employees to abstain from funding collective bargaining efforts with which they disagree.¹ A decision by the Court against the teachers association could not only significantly weaken public sector unions, but also endanger the nation’s core democratic values.

Michelle King is new superintendent for Los Angeles Unified School District

Howard Blume and Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times

For months, a high-profile head-hunting firm searched the nation for a new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. On Monday evening, the Board of Education gave the job to a candidate who was part of the district all along: Chief Deputy Supt. Michelle King. Some education experts cheered the decision. Others winced. Few thought that finding a leader for the district was an easy task.

Language, Culture, and Power

The schools taking in Syrian refugees

Naomi Nix, The Atlantic

In Connecticut, communities have welcomed those searching for a home and set up systems to help them rebuild.

Do metal detectors do more harm than good?

Cecelia Reyes, ProPublica, and Jenny Ye, WNYC

On the coldest morning New York City has seen this winter, a stream of teenage students hit a bottleneck at the front of a Brooklyn school building. They shed their jackets, gloves, and belts, shivering as they wait to pass through a metal detector and send their backpacks through an X-ray machine. School-safety agents stand nearby, poised to step in if the alarm bleats.

The steep costs of keeping juveniles in adult prisons

Jessica Lahey, The Atlantic

Despite federal statues prohibiting it, many states imprison those under 18 alongside adults, where they are much more likely to suffer sexual abuse and violence.

Access, Assessment, and Advancement

Where are all the high-school grads going?

Alia Wong, The Atlantic

More Americans are getting their diplomas—but fewer are enrolling in college. Why the mismatch?

College degree gap grows wider between whites, blacks and Latinos

Meredith Kolodner, The Hechinger Report

The racial gap in who’s graduating from college has widened since 2007, a new report shows. While more blacks and Latinos are graduating from college now, the percentage of whites graduating has grown even faster.

UC schools receive record number of applications, topped by UCLA and UC San Diego

Jason Song, Los Angeles Times

More than 206,000 people applied for admission to at least one University of California campus for the 2016 fall semester, setting a new record for the 12th year in a row, officials announced Monday.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Will California's booming economy pay off in pupil spending?

The Associated Press, Education Week

Soaring tax revenues have carried per-pupil education spending in California beyond where it stood before the recession, but even the record sum proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown is unlikely to reverse the state's standing as a comparative miser when it comes to investing in public schools, advocates and education officials said.

How do we solve stubborn segregation in schools?

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, PBS NewsHour; Pedro Noguera, University of California, Los Angeles

Despite a historic Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregated schools, today huge numbers of students remain in separate and unequal schools, most in inner cities. Special correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault talks with Pedro Noguera of the University of California, Los Angeles, about the consequences of such inequality and what can be done.

Public Schools and Private $

Schools aren't startups and kids aren't consumers

Karen Quartz, Los Angeles Times

A philosophical controversy is also churning inside LAUSD: Should LAUSD become a competitive marketplace of schools, or grow as a democratic civic institution?

Walton Foundation puts up $1 billion to boost charters

The Associated Press, New York Times

A foundation run by the heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton plans to spend $1 billion on public schools over the next five years. The Walton Family Foundation planned to notify patrons Thursday that it hopes to establish new charter schools and help programs already in place. The money will be spent in about two dozen states where it has already aided programs.

Other News of Note

Sylvia Rousseau on Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy

UCLA IDEA

To remember Dr. King this year, we reprint a 2013 interview about King’s legacy for education in Los Angeles.

Just News from Center X is a free weekly education news blast edited by Jenn Ayscue.