Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

‘A tragedy for us all’: Supreme Court Justice Jackson blasts majority’s affirmative action ruling

Kevin Breuninger, CNBC

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson excoriated her colleagues who voted to strike down race-conscious college admissions policies, accusing the majority of “turning back the clock” on affirmative action. “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat,” Jackson wrote in a thundering dissent to the major court ruling Thursday. “But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life,” she wrote. “History speaks. In some form, it can be heard forever. The race-based gaps that first developed centuries ago are echoes from the past that still exist today. By all accounts, they are still stark,” Jackson wrote.

Public Sector Strikes Are About Aligning Our Society With Its Stated Values

Donald Cohen and Jeff Hagan, Jacobin

In March, a union representing thirty thousand support workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District called a three-day strike to demand higher wages. The action got the support of the teachers’ union, which asked its thirty-five thousand members to honor the strike and not cross the picket line. Members agreed, and for three days sixty-five thousand workers stayed home, shutting down the school district and eventually winning contract victories for both unions. That strike is only the most recent and widely reported strike among public employees. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that there was a 50 percent increase in strike activity in 2022 over the previous year. Across the United States and indeed the globe, public sector workers are engaging in strikes.

How school systems, educators and parents can support transgender children [AUDIO]

Tanya Mosley, NPR

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Tonya Mosley. About a decade ago, transgender educator Aidan Key started to get what felt like an influx of inquiries from parents and educators desperate for help. On the surface, it felt like a new phenomenon, with more children than ever before identifying as transgender. But as Aidan Key writes in a new book, transgender people have always existed. Part of what we’re witnessing, he believes, is a new ability for children to put language to their identities.

Language, Culture, and Power

A shortage of bilingual teachers threatens goal for a multilingual California

Los Angeles Times Editorial Board

Five years ago, the California Department of Education set a goal that half of K-12 students would be literate in at least two languages by 2030, and three-fourths by 2040, to be achieved by recruiting and training more teachers to teach bilingual classes, enrolling more students in dual immersion classes and encouraging more students to become literate in more than one language. It’s not that much of a stretch given that about 40% of the state’s students already speak another language at home. The Global California Initiative 2030 recognizes that preparing students for a global economy is essential, but the state has lagged in its efforts to build the ranks of bilingual teachers needed to reach the goal. The number of new teachers authorized to teach bilingual classes who are hired annually has increased each year, growing from 716 in the 2012-13 school year to 1,188 in 2020-21. However, that number decreased to 1,116 the following year. The global initiative sets a goal of hiring 2,000 teachers in 2040.

US music education has a history of anti-Blackness that is finally being confronted

Philip Ewell, The Conversation

When it comes to achieving racial diversity, music education at the university level in the U.S. still has a long way to go. One of the leading professional organizations, the Society for Music Theory, put it bluntly in 2020: “We humbly acknowledge that we have much work to do to dismantle the whiteness and systemic racism that deeply shape our discipline,” the group wrote.

The focus on white, male Europeans in textbooks and music selected for study has been called into question by countless scholars and practitioners because of music education’s deep roots in anti-Blackness.

It’s Time to Move Beyond ‘Asian American’

Megha Khemka, NY Times

What do a Cambodian refugee with PTSD, the United States surgeon general, a Vietnamese Trump supporter, and I have in common? Little except at least one relative who, at some point, came to America from the landmass of Asia; and membership, consequently, in the demographic group “Asian American.” No term encompassing people of over 50 ethnicities can be culturally meaningful. Instead, proponents frame “Asian Americans” as a politically convenient coalition. This sentiment is what originally inspired the term, when graduate students in 1968 used it to organize against the Vietnam War. Today, though, Asians in this country are far more numerous and diverse than they were decades ago.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

D.C. kids will get new menstrual health education next year, a first in the country

Lauren Lumpkin, Washington Post

For Liv Birnstad, much what she’s learned at school about reproductive health has been about preventing sexually transmitted diseases. She learned about sex and how babies are made, but there was scant information on periods — how to prepare for them or why they happen. “For some people, it’s taboo,” said Birnstad, a senior at Capital City Public Charter School in Northwest Washington. “Folks may not have parents who are willing to teach them about these things.” Next school year, however, that will change.

Sandy Hook mom wants to ensure special education is part of safety conversations

Kara Arundel, K-12 Dive

As many schools refine their emergency plans and safety trainings in response to a national increase in school shootings, there’s growing interest in crisis preparation regarding the needs of students and other people with disabilities or other unique circumstances. One program, Especially Safe, is trying to provide answers. Its primary creator, Michele Gay, tragically understands how valuable inclusive emergency preparation can be.

Creating the Conditions for Children to Learn:  Oakland’s Districtwide Community Schools Initiative

Sarah Klevan, Julia Daniel, Kendra Fehrer, and Anna Maier, Learning Policy Institute

Community schools partner with local organizations and family members to integrate a range of supports and opportunities for students, families, and the community in order to promote students’ physical, social, emotional, and academic well-being. While every community school differs in its response to the assets and needs of its community, each typically incorporates four key pillars: (1) integrated systems of support, such as mental and physical health care and other wraparound services; (2) enriched and expanded learning time and opportunities, including lengthening the school day and year as well as enriching the curriculum through student-centered learning opportunities; (3) active family and community engagement that includes service provision and meaningful partnerships with family members; and (4) collaborative leadership practices that facilitate the coordination of community school services and include various school stakeholders in site-based decision-making.

Access, Assessment, Advancement

How Colorado Went From ‘Laggard to Leader’ in Early Childhood Education

Emily Tate Sullivan, EdSurge

In late April, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis sat down at his desk to make some phone calls. The governor, on this day, was calling to deliver good news. He wanted to personally congratulate some of the 22,087 families who had matched with their first-choice provider for Colorado’s free, universal preschool program, which launches this fall. A parent named Katie, in Summit County, was among those who received a call from the governor.

Thousands more prisoners across the US will get free college paid for by the government

Aaron Morrison, ABC News

The graduates lined up, brushing off their gowns and adjusting classmates’ tassels and stoles. As the graduation march played, the 85 men appeared to hoots and cheers from their families. They marched to the stage – one surrounded by barbed wire fence and constructed by fellow prisoners.

For these were no ordinary graduates. Their black commencement garb almost hid their aqua and navy-blue prison uniforms as they received college degrees, high school diplomas and vocational certificates earned while they served time. Thousands of prisoners throughout the United States get their college degrees behind bars, most of them paid for by the federal Pell Grant program, which offers the neediest undergraduates tuition aid that they don’t have to repay. That program is about to expand exponentially next month, giving about 30,000 more students behind bars some $130 million in financial aid per year.

Examining the impact of California’s ban on affirmative action in public schools [Audio]

A Martinez and Zachary Bleemer, NPR’s Morning Edition

The Supreme Court this week is expected to rule in a case that will decide whether affirmative action is legal in the U.S. The case involves admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, a state where affirmative action has already been prohibited, offers a sense of how a national ban might play out. In 1996, California voters passed ballot Proposition 209, which banned race and gender as factors in state university admissions, as well as hiring and contracting. Zachary Bleemer has studied the impact of that ballot proposition. He’s an incoming assistant professor of economics at Princeton University. He spoke with A. Martínez.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Poverty 4th Leading Cause of Death in U.S. as Calls Grow for Third Reconstruction: Bishop Barber [Video]

Democracy Now!

Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, says it’s “grotesque and immoral” that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, higher than homicide and respiratory illness, citing recent findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Why do we hear so much about crime rates and opioids and gun violence in America, but poverty kills more people than all of those things?” asks Barber. He joins us to talk about the intensifying efforts of the Poor People’s Campaign to end poverty and empower poor and low-wage workers and support “The Third Reconstruction” resolution in Congress. This weekend, the Poor People’s Campaign led a Moral Poverty Action Congress in Washington, D.C., focused on ending poverty in the United States.

Seven Ways to Make Equity Research Matter More

NEPC

Researchers who study inequities often hope to help reduce them. But can they? Yes, NEPC Fellow Elizabeth Moje, Dean of the Marsal Family School of Education at the University of Michigan, argues in a recent essay in Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. But, she writes, if they are to do so, some important things must change: “I believe that research can make a systems-level difference but that social scientists must take a step back and reconsider the methods used, the voices privileged, and the practices for teaching (or learning from) a new generation of scholars.”In her commentary, Moje lays out seven steps that social scientists should take if they want to maximize the chances that their work will decrease inequity rather than merely describing it.

Raymond Silva, trailblazing Mexican American educator, son of Wyoming

Gonzalo Guzmán, WyoFile

To understand the tale of trailblazing Mexican American educator Raymond Silva, one must first get to know the Wyoming of nearly a century ago: a place of segregation, Juan Crow policies and child labor. One must also remember, that the southwestern corner of Wyoming was Mexican territory as recently as 1848 when the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War, ceded the area to the U.S. The international border shifted hundreds of miles to the south with the stroke of a pen. Much of the history of the Mexican communities that remained has been lost to time.

Democracy and the Public Interest

California’s Commitment to K-12 Civic Learning: A 2022 Assessment

Erica Hodgin, Samia Alkam, Yvette Conde, and Joseph Kahne, LEADE

California has taken important steps to reclaim the democratic purpose of the state’s public schools. However, further progress is needed to ensure all students in California have access to high-quality democratic education and to meet the continuing challenges of today. This research brief examines the extent to which California has made progress in supporting the democratic purpose of its public schools since our previous study in 2020. To do so, we examined LCAP plans, district mission statements, district staffing, and the roll out of the California State Seal of Civic Engagement.

A Kansas City teen wants to lower the voting age to 16 to increase civic engagement [AUDIO]

Steve Kraske and Halle Jackson, KCUR

If you want to vote in any election in Missouri, you have to be 18 years of age by election day. But some voting rights advocates, like DJ Yearwood, think that should change. In March, Yearwood started a ballot initiative campaign called Vote16MO, which is working to lower the voting age from 18 to 16 in Missouri for certain elections. The group hopes to get an issue on the November 2024 ballot that would allow 16-year-olds to vote in local and municipal elections, where candidates don’t register with a party. Yearwood says this system would teach civic engagement without divisive politics — giving students a “stable learning environment” for getting involved in government.

Inside the African American studies class praised by some and fiercely opposed by others [Video]

Laura Barrón-López and Tess Conciatori, PBS Newshour

The school year is coming to a close and with it, the first year of Advanced Placement African American studies, an interdisciplinary class by the College Board that has attracted praise from professors and also fierce opposition from some Republican politicians. Laura Barrón-López spoke with educators, students and experts to understand the potential and the politics behind the course.

Other News of Note

No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear [2015]

Toni Morrison, The Nation

Christmas, the day after, in 2004, following the presidential re-election of George W. Bush.

I am staring out of the window in an extremely dark mood, feeling helpless. Then a friend, a fellow artist, calls to wish me happy holidays. He asks, “How are you?” And instead of “Oh, fine—and you?”, I blurt out the truth: “Not well. Not only am I depressed, I can’t seem to work, to write; it’s as though I am paralyzed, unable to write anything more in the novel I’ve begun. I’ve never felt this way before, but the election….” I am about to explain with further detail when he interrupts, shouting: “No! No, no, no! This is precisely the time when artists go to work—not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That’s our job!”

How to Build the Media our Movements Need

Alex Han and Bhaskar Sunkara, In These Times

It’s a good time to be in right-wing media. The Daily Wire brings in $100 million per year. Prager U spends between $25-30,000 per video concern trolling about undocumented people and explaining why income inequality is good, actually. Steven Crowder went public with his disgust over a $50 million contract offer before being outed — to everyone’s surprise — as an alleged abuser. Right-wing mega-donors aren’t funding these operations out of the kindness of their shriveled hearts. They’re doing so because they expect a return on their investment in the form of tax breaks, loosened regulations, and the mainstreaming of far-right ​“common sense.” (As it turns out, that doesn’t come cheap!)  How can we build a left media infrastructure that supports movements for justice and liberation?

The Intimate Project of Solidarity

Nia Evans, Boston Review

“Freedom is a love story,” writes Dan Berger in the introduction of his new book Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power through One Family’s Journey. “It is cacophonous and seamless, beautiful and tedious.” Few authors illustrate that quite like Berger, who tells the little-known stories of Michael and Zoharah Simmons, activists whose decades of patient, dedicated organizing work—both locally and internationally—would help give lasting shape to the Black Power movement.