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Category Archives: Schools and Politics
Will School Funding Reform Include Resources for Low Income Youth?
School Funding Reforms in Washington State and California properly should include additional funding for at risk low income youth. Continue reading
Posted in At Risk Students, Schools and Politics
Tagged ample provision for education of all students, at risk low income students, high poverty districts, McCleary ruling, school funding mechanisms, special needs students, staff mix, Washington State school funding, Washington State Supreme Court
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We the People and the Slouch of the Rude Beast
The dangers of the coming Presidency are real and shocking and have left many still numbed; all citizens, most pointedly teachers of the youth, have a role to play in buttressing rights and freedoms we may take for granted. Continue reading
Betsy DeVos, the Force Behind Detroit School Chaos
With apparently good intentions to help kids trapped in “low wattage” schools, Betsy DeVos, a champion of charters and school choice, by leverage of her family’s financial and political clout, has engineered changes in Michigan schools that have lowered their standing, and undercut the viability of Detroit schools. She has been tapped as Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education. Continue reading
Housing Disorder, Poverty, and Test Scores
Summary: Poverty and serial housing destabilize the school fortunes of children from poor neighborhoods and stymie the battle to improve their academic skills. Promising political developments, economic insights and human resilience contribute hope to the schoolhouse.
School Reform: Tough to Measure and Hostage to Heightened Poverty
Summary: What is the report card on school reform? Test scores, mediocre at best, are too narrow a measure, though useful. Project based deep learning and interventions that motivate students are important, but difficult to measure. Increasing poverty and income … Continue reading
At Risk Kids: A Road Map to Intervention
Summary: Children of poverty often need more intensive services to succeed in school; a blueprint for doing so out of the University of Oregon School of Education merits a review.
Schools and Politics: In Epitaph Of A Tale Told By An Idiot
Summary: The demise of No Child Left Behind together with the rise of Every Student Succeeds acknowledges the limits of federal power and corporately inspired test measurement, targets funding to lower performing groups, and shifts the balance of policy power … Continue reading
Schools and Poverty: The Good News from King County, Washington
Summary: In a flash of progressiveness, the voters of King County (Seattle) have levied themselves a substantial sum to lift children born to poverty, and may yet more fully put their money to their famously progressive mouth. Perhaps it has … Continue reading
Posted in At Risk Students, Schools and Politics
Tagged at risk students, Best Starts for Kids, Dow Constatine, education and politics, education research, foster kids, Harlem Childrens' Zone, Jessyn Farrell, low-income students, parent support, poverty, preschool, school funding, teen clinics
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Let Us Not Be Blamed: A Meditation on the State of Teacher Unionism, Corporate America, and Poverty
Summary: Unions are targeted by corporate based reformers as the bad guy, and do need to take better charge of the debate, but the real culprit at base is the political failure to impact poverty. Maureen (we shall call her) … Continue reading
Charter Schools Revisited: The Washington Supreme Court Throws a Curve Ball
Summary: In a major blow to the belated arrival of charter schools in Washington State, the Washington Supreme Court has ruled that charter schools in the state cannot receive public funds dedicated to “common schools” because they are not governed … Continue reading
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