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Tag Archives: school funding
School Reform and Politics: The Lessons of LBJ and the Pedernales
Summary: Truly radical government intervention seems to occur at moments of raggedness in the social fabric, such as in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. At what point do the struggles of our … Continue reading
School Suspension Reform and the Real School
Summary: As any reform, change in suspension practices will need to be founded upon staff cohesion and communication, a clearly thought out plan that includes both the mentoring of students and accountability for their actions, and sufficient adult people power … Continue reading
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
Posted in At Risk Students, School Reform
Tagged Adverse Childhood Experiences, at risk students, dropouts, failure of suspended students, film Paper Tigers, in-school suspension, James Redford, low-income students, relationships in schools, school funding, school reform, student resilience, suspension from school
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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
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
Schools and Politics: Could It Be the Obama GI Bill?
Summary: Though one might argue scarce funds should go first to low income students, President Obama’s offer to make community college free of tuition could also stem the slide out of the middle class for others. Costs of living beyond … Continue reading
School Bureaucracy: Behind the Walkout at Garfield High
Summary: The common practice in school districts that adjusts student-teacher ratios a month into school retards the learning process, distracts teachers and counselors from more important work, and in the end simply harms students, some more than others. The practice … Continue reading
School Reform: Why One Success Does Not Beget Another
Summary: Looks as though the difficulty of replicating the success of one school in another may come down to clever access or lack thereof to extra resources. The first school has been innovative in program, but often by leveraging additional … Continue reading
School Bureaucracy: Lessons from the VA and GM
Summary: The current debacles at the Veterans’ Administration and General Motors, and the parallel inability of upper management to solicit data from grass roots workers, may well mirror the deaf ear of too many senior school administrators to teacher point … Continue reading
At-Risk Students: Follow the Money
Summary: Incentive systems for school districts to retrieve and hold dropouts are themselves dysfunctional. Yet, in committed communities dropout retrieval efforts are succeeding. “Follow the money.” Normally a line uttered on a TV crime show, a recent Education Week article … Continue reading
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