Tag Archives: at risk students

School Reform: Race and Class and Suspension

Summary: Suspension from school for misbehavior has long contributed to chronic school failure particularly for African American and low income students. Alternatives to suspension are cropping up in various locales, many of which seem to intervene with more intensive and … Continue reading

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School Reform: Listen Deeply to What Teachers Know

Summary: Recent research identifies truths about kids and pedagogy that have long been embedded in the practice of American educators. Time is long past to act more consistently on teacher insights. The American teacher is targeted from some sectors as … Continue reading

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At Risk Kids: In-School Suspension Re-Imagined

Summary: With calls to find alternatives to exclusion of disciplined students from school, in-school suspension might serve as a vehicle through which adult staff and mentors can work with suspended students in a constructive fashion. In my mind’s eye I … Continue reading

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At Risk Kids: Keeping Them in the Game

Summary: Building of relationships with at risk kids and seeing their misbehavior as an expression of difficulties in their history can short circuit suspension and retain them as part of the school community. This people intensive approach requires deepened funding. … Continue reading

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School Reform Begins at Conception

Summary: Emerging research on “fetal origins of disease” poses a challenge to school reform and public policy. In this era of rapid changes in social consciousness, a man with African American heritage is president, and gay and lesbian folk are … Continue reading

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At Risk Students and School Reform: Will High Expectations Be Enough?

Summary: An impressive turnaround in enrollment, academic atmosphere, and graduation rate at Seattle’s Rainier Beach High School apparently stems from a decision a few years ago to establish an International Baccalaureate program at the school. While high expectations of student … Continue reading

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School Reform: College Counseling is “Elementary”

Summary: College counseling for low income students plays to a largely absent audience if interventions have not been going on since elementary school. I looked across the room of fifty or sixty seniors with a pride that had little to … Continue reading

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School Reform and the Suspension Trap; Charters Learn the Lesson

Summary: High profile charters in New Orleans learn the lesson good public high schools have known for a while. Suspension often has to take a back seat to more nuanced and humanly intensive interventions in the lives of the kids … Continue reading

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Schools and Culture: The Death of Michael Brown

Summary: Prior to his encounter with Officer Wilson on the streets of Ferguson, Michael Brown in many respects was a relatively normal teenager on the cusp of adulthood. His death poses a challenge to the manner in which we empower … Continue reading

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Charter Schools: The Search for the Golden Mean

Summary: After lagging behind other parts of the country in establishing charter schools, the state of Washington is poised to enter the arena after enabling legislation was passed via a recent initiative. An article in the Seattle Times which explores … Continue reading

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