Category Archives: At Risk Students

How Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde Ganged Up on Me – A Lesson in Bureaucracy

His mother glared at me. She struggled to control her tone… Continue reading

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The Long Hard Way Out of Sticky Bottom; Amarillo College and the Battle with Poverty

It’s harder to be poor. Many readers will acknowledge they have been charmed by a loan from a parent…. Continue reading

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Si, Se Puede; a Hopeful Slice of School Change and Its Politics

The truth secured to the underbelly of the myth is that prior privilege abides, and whites and accumulated wealth perpetuate; the poor and citizens of color are excluded from the spoils by institutional rigidities and other illness in the fabric. Continue reading

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Is the God of Testing Dead? Or Just More Dimly Lit in the Firmament?

The god of testing may have run its course and its power diminished. The reduction of teaching and learning to its quantifiable data points, a child of market thinking and a need for accountability, is necessarily here with us to stay, but perhaps in a more proportional role Continue reading

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Bring Those Charters into the House!

Charters are gaining ground. High time for public school boards, including Seattle’s, to make their peace, authorize a limited number of charters over time, and harness their creative energy. Continue reading

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Yet in the Shadows: School Topics for the Light of Day

Institutional leadership in the charter era, the fate of a deep student underclass, and the teaching of civics are three topics which mistakenly get short shrift in the current conversation around schools. Continue reading

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Dubious Tales: Don’t Build It and They Won’t Come

While the Seattle School Board votes to fight a zoning waiver for a new Green Dot charter high school, the Board members seem to ignore complex forces gathering at their door. Continue reading

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Why Do They Leave?

In the rain shadow of the Washington State’s Olympic Mountains, nestled below rugged peaks and ridges, and adjacent to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, sits the small city of Sequim. Continue reading

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The Immigrant Lesson: It’s About the Future

A lot can be learned from current immigrants to this corner of the earth. Continue reading

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