Tag Archives: school funding

Discipline and Students of Color: the Ecology of Student Experience

You are a student of color in a large American high school, perhaps also a recent immigrant. A friend of yours has run afoul a school code; let us say by talking disrespectfully, out of control, to a teacher. Continue reading

Posted in At Risk Students, School Reform, Schools and Culture, Schools and Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

At Risk Students: Stress and the Legacy of Poverty

Summary: While the parent/child cocoon is the seat of cognitive growth according to attachment theory, disruption to that relationship within the stresses of poverty can also mean low income students’ frontal cortex does not develop optimally, which becomes a liability … Continue reading

Posted in At Risk Students | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

School Reform and the Demise of the Bureaucrat

Summary: The transformation of Foster High School into a functioning academy for a largely immigrant multicultural population, with improved graduation rates, strong math scores, and a peaceful campus is a study in how communication and respect can melt away the … Continue reading

Posted in At Risk Students, School Bureaucracy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

At Risk Kids and the Banner of Universal Preschool

Summary: Universal preschool has rightly been on the policy upswing, and while long term benefits look to be worth the cost, pivotal questions remain about curriculum appropriate to three and four year olds and the role of parent training.

Posted in At Risk Students, School Reform | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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.

Posted in At Risk Students, School Reform, Schools and Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in School Reform, Schools and Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted in Schools and Culture, Schools and Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Charter Schools: Russakov’s The Prize, and Lessons from Newark

Summary: Dale Russakov’s tale of the assault by reformers on Newark Schools is a saga of conflict, righteous myopia, entrenched interests, unintended consequences, upheaval in neighborhoods, grudging progress, and a rending of social fabric; yet in the end no easy … Continue reading

Posted in At Risk Students, Charter Schools, School Reform | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Schools and Politics: Seattle Teachers Strike and Aim to Be Players

Summary: The Seattle Teachers’ strike has ended with advances in salary and working conditions, but also in agreements that address quality of schooling for kids, such as disproportionate discipline for kids of color and, in general, suspension as a tool … Continue reading

Posted in Schools and Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment