So Joel Klein grew up in public housing but that doesn’t qualify him as poor in the ways we now understand public housing as code for poverty-striken? Hmmmm. And because his experience didn’t neatly fit some current definition of “dysfunctional home we typically associate with the truly disadvantaged” poverty, his narrative about the impact of teachers on his life trajectory fails as advocacy for teacher quality and effectiveness because it’s a “misleading” “sleight of hand”? I just can’t buy this.
I have two objections and a short personal story.
First, the role of social class on educational attainment and learning is far more complicated than we are currently allowing for in the education-reform debate. Second, the story of educator impact is universal, and teacher effectiveness is central to all of our work no matter what side of the current debate we find ourselves on as individuals.
If you’re on Huff Post’s website you’ll see which headlines of the day are being shared most widely—lots of stuff on Tuesday’s presidential debate, links about ‘Binders Full of Women’, and apparently J-Lo had a wardrobe malfunction. What you might also see is a story coming out of Waverly, NY where a regularly held pep rally included, for audience entertainment, a skit reenacting domestic violence between pop stars Chris Brown and Rihanna.
Weird yet? Add in that this school is predominantly white, as were all the actors, who wore blackface for the skit. Wait for it—here’s the thing that really made my jaw hit the floor—in a pep rally with students (obvi) there were also parents, faculty, members of the media and community in attendance—and no one stopped the skit.
Photo via WikiCommons. Warner Bros. publicity photo for the film The Jazz Singer (1927), featuring Al Jolson as Jack Robin, in blackface, performing "My Mammy"
Gabriel Ozuna is an undergraduate at Yale University (Class of 2015). He was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley and is a proud resident of Donna, Texas, where he graduated from IDEA College Preparatory.
With less than a month to go before Election Day, it is easy to get lost in the unavailing political banter that always seems to drown out the real issues, which I think neither candidate wants to face. Any intelligent debate gets reduced to an overly simplistic bullet-point plan, slogan, or criticism of one’s opponent. But the current education crisis desperately demands that both candidates submit comprehensive proposals on how they plan to overhaul the educational system after the election.
Unfortunately, yesterday’s debate between Obama's and Romney's education advisers, Jon Schnur and Phil Handy, failed to give much further insight into what changes we can expect in the next four years. Schnur began his defense of President Obama’s first term by describing the President’s “commitment to education” even in the midst of economic collapse. Apparently, writing in a $100 billion provision into his stimulus package makes up for Obama’s failure to enact lasting educational changes in the long run. While the initial cash flow may have helped sustain some programs like Pell Grants and Head Start, the money we threw at them is now gone with little more to show for it than an increased deficit.
Handy, on the other hand, idealistically restated the same educational platform the Republican Party has held for the last decade--using state and local policy to raise educational standards frosted with a fantastic promise of “vouchers for all!” Now, there is much to be said for localizing how schools are run and evaluated in a state-by-state basis so that school districts are better held accountable to local entities like parents and communities. But we need specifics about how Romney plans to create incentives for states to raise their academic standards under his proposed “revamp” of NCLB.
Photo by VOA via WikiCommons
Nihal ElRayess is Senior Managing Director of Student Achievement and Program on Teach For America’s Technology Solutions team.
Nineteen years ago when I was teaching first grade in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, my students were all low-income kids who worked hard and were eager to learn. But statistically only 10 out of 25 would enroll in college.
Today, the bleak statistics are no longer just around college access, but actual college completion. According to a recent study, only 8% of low-income students go on to graduate from a 4-year college by the age of 24 compared to 82% of high-income students. They may struggle to adjust on campus, and often fail to seek critical support services that would help them successfully navigate college.
Photo via Instagram @chrystiane_rose: Bringing awareness to the inequality in educational achievement #universityofdelaware #teachforamerica
Carolina’s post marks National Mental Health Awareness Week, which is observed to create awareness and educate the public on mental health.
“That girl was so desperate to lose weight. She was so desperate that she started starving herself and purging her food and working out like a crazy person.”
This was the conversation I was hardly paying attention to last week when I went for lunch with some acquaintances of mine. Most people on the table responded with “omg ew” and “what a freak.” I hadn’t paid attention to all of the conversation, so I wasn’t sure whom they were talking about. Were they talking about me?
Photo via NAMI
Today the U.S. Supreme Court hears closing arguments for Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, its first case on the use of race in college admissions since 2003. Wendy Kopp shared her reflections on the case in an Op-Ed piece that ran on Huffington Post. We have reblogged it in full with her permission.
All eyes are on the Supreme Court today as it considers Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, its first case on the use of race in college admissions since 2003. Back then a different group of justices ruled that diversity is such an important national interest that universities could continue to consider race as one of many factors when deciding who to admit. Now the lawsuit brought against UT by a rejected white applicant named Abigail Fisher challenges the right of all colleges to use race in a holistic process that fosters diverse student bodies.
It's expected to be a close decision. If the Court sides with Fisher, our nation's colleges could soon become much less diverse—with major repercussions in every sector of our society.
Photo credit: JimmeyTimmey via WikiCommons
Bailey Hampton (Eastern North Carolina '04) is the Manager of District and School Partnerships for Teach For America—Houston.
On October 5, 1994, UNESCO celebrated the first World Teachers' Day to commemorate the 1966 signing of the Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers by officials from the United Nations and the International Labor Organization.
Interestingly, it is not just in the United States that the profession of teaching is under-respected. UNESCO, with this year’s subtle slogan “Take a stand for teachers!” hopes countries will recognize the day by drawing attention to and discussing the profession and what we can do to support and celebrate our teachers. In that vein, I’d like to tip my hat off to efforts from around the globe to lift this holiday.
Photo by enixii via WikiCommons
Marcus Williams (Chicago ‘03) is on the Talent Recruitment Team at Teach For America.
Watching last night’s Presidential Debate, I heard references to Race to the Top, the success of schools in the state of Massachusetts, and inexplicably, “poor and disabled children.” If I had to choose a title to depict what I observed, I would go with Jay-Z’s “Politics as Usual.” Missing from the dialogue was the fundamental question of the status of the teaching profession and the value this country places on teachers.
Photo credit: Lionelt via Wikimedia Commons
Listening to the presidential candidates on education last night was like listening to two friends talk about how they intended to fix up their house. President Obama intends to throw new shingles on the roof with 100,000 new math and science teachers. Governor Romney wants to replace the plumbing and let federal funding “follow the child.” And they both agree that the new wood floors installed by their Race to the Top contractors look better than the old ones.
Except the house isn’t just in need of a fix-up. The house is on fire.
Photo credit: KoS via Wikipedia Commons
Jennifer Davis is the Co-Founder and President of the National Center on Time & Learning. Check out the NCLT blog, Time Matters.
Over the last few years we have seen a revolution in public education reform in America. One antiquated education structure that is undergoing dramatic change is the standard American school schedule of 180 six-and-a-half hour days. The long summer breaks and short school days are not meeting the needs of today’s students—especially those living in poverty. Exciting new school models are emerging all over the country.
For example, the Orchard Gardens K – 8 School in Boston is in the midst of a remarkable turnaround. Established in 2003, the school suffered from seven years of dismal student performance. Then, two years ago, with a new principal, the infusion of new staff—recruited with the help of TFA—an expanded school schedule, and “turnaround” funding from the federal School Improvement Grant program, the school began experiencing a renaissance. The teachers are talented, passionate, and relentless in their drive to transform their students’ education. Today the school can boast of rapidly rising student achievement, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently singled the school out for praise during his speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Photo by David Schubert via WikiCommons
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