Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught

Dana Goldstein, New York Times

In the Trump era, history and civics education are under a microscope. Several major curriculum publishers have withdrawn products from the market, while others have found that teachers are shying away from lessons that were once uncontroversial, on topics as basic as constitutional limits on executive power. California, the nation’s largest Democratic-led state, has passed a law restricting what teachers can say in the classroom, and has walked back an effort to require high school students to take classes in ethnic studies.

Judge orders Trump administration to restore school mental health grants

Ben Brasch, Washington Post

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for grants that are meant to bolster school-based mental health care and were created in response to the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The Education Department in April began cutting more than $1 billion in congressionally approved grants that fund counseling for students and help remove financial barriers for people seeking to become school psychologists. Federal education officials said the funding was being used to try to diversify the pool of psychologists; President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January calling for the end of programs that foster diversity, equity and inclusion.

Teachers unions leverage contracts to fight climate change

Caroline Preston, Hechinger Report

In Illinois, the Chicago Teachers Union won a contract with the city’s schools to add solar panels on some buildings and clean energy career pathways for students, among other actions. In Minnesota, the Minneapolis Federation of Educators demanded that the district create a task force on environmental issues and provide free metro passes for students. And in California, the Los Angeles teachers union’s demands include electrifying the district’s bus fleet and providing electric vehicle charging stations at all schools. Those are among the examples in a new report on how unionized teachers are pushing their school districts to take action on the climate crisis, which is damaging school buildings and disrupting learning.

Language, Culture, and Power

Senators demand Linda McMahon ask DHS to stop immigration enforcement near schools

Natasha Korecki and Daniella Silva, NBC News

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and at least a half a dozen other senators are calling on the U.S. Department of Education to pressure immigration authorities to refrain from carrying out immigration enforcement within 1,000 feet of any school property, citing recent classroom disruptions in the Chicago area. On Friday, they sent the letter, first provided to NBC News, to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, demanding that she step in and ask the Department of Homeland Security to curb its operations around schools. “Federal agents continue to use unwarranted, excessive levels of force around Chicago, demonstrating an alarming lack of care or regard for the health and wellbeing of children, particularly by conducting unfocused, inflammatory operations within close proximity of school grounds,” the senators wrote in the letter. “

Chicago’s children are getting caught in the chaos of immigration crackdowns (Photo Essay)

Revecca Blackwell and Claire Galofaro, AP News

Just before noon on a sunny Friday earlier this month, federal immigration agents threw tear gas canisters onto a busy Chicago street, just outside of an elementary school and a children’s play cafe. Parents, teachers and caregivers rushed to shield children and have been grappling ever since with how to protect them when masked men in unmarked SUVs show up unannounced in neighborhoods across this city. A half-dozen toddlers were sitting in the window of the Luna y Cielo Play Cafe, where children learn Spanish as they play, on Oct. 3 when a white SUV rolled down their street in Logan Square, a historically Hispanic neighborhood that’s been steadily gentrifying for years.

‘We’re the Resistance’

George B. Sánchez-Tello, American Prospect

Rossana Pérez was arrested by a death squad and imprisoned in her native El Salvador for months before arriving as a refugee to Los Angeles more than 40 years ago. Now, the Los Angeles professor, writer and activist supports others who, like her, have overcome unthinkable trauma in their home countries to continue their lives in the United States. But for Pérez, as painful as the ongoing immigration raids in Los Angeles have been, Latinos and other immigrant communities need only look to history to find hope, examples and guidance for how to survive this tumultuous time. Ongoing, aggressive immigration raids since June have impacted the physical and mental health of Latinos across Los Angeles. But not everyone is able to turn to a doctor or therapist for aid. Elders like Pérez, 67, often provide vital support and direction too.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

Anti-Trans Attacks Tear Communities Apart (Audio)

Imara Jones, Translash

The flood of anti-trans attacks in education isn’t a grassroots phenomenon, it’s part of a calculated attack on democracy. In the first episode of this series, journalist Imara Jones investigates right-wing efforts to take over school boards and throw communities into chaos. Join her as she travels to Pennsylvania to learn how these attacks are playing out in a vital swing district, shedding light on the powerful network behind them and how communities can fight back.

A storied Los Angeles high school band had fallen on hard times. Then along came Mr J

Victoria Clayton, The Guardian

Joan Rosas says educators as early as kindergarten flat-out told him he wasn’t capable. “I got horrible grades,” he said. “I could barely read until eighth grade when I figured out how to teach myself.” The Inglewood high school sophomore says he received little meaningful support for his learning challenges and, under the circumstances, grew to dislike school. Eventually, he started acting out, trying things like smoking. Everything began to change when he picked up his older brother’s trombone. At first, he dabbled. Then he met Inglewood high’s band director, Joseph Jauregui – AKA Mr J – who encouraged him to get involved in marching band. A few lessons in and he was sold. “Now as long as I have band, I don’t care. I’ll do whatever I have to do to stay in school and play,” Rosas, 15, said.

Japan’s youth are apathetic toward the climate crisis. Could anime change that?

Tomoko Otake, The Japan Times

The first episode of “Future Kid Takara,” a new series of anime shorts, opens with the thrilling scene of a boy named Takara and a scientist named Dr. Amory running away from a tornado in 2100.v“Doctor, it’s hail!” the boy shouts as he tries to dodge hailstones and bolts of lightning. “I know!” the scientist shouts back. As they are swept up by the tornado, Takara hits a time travel button attached to Dr. Amory’s body, taking them to the year 2024, when the climate crisis is not nearly as severe as it would become.vIn 2024, they meet 12-year-old Sara, and together they travel around the world to discover the “beautiful Earth” that no longer exists in the future. On the journey, they see firsthand that signs of climate change are already emerging: the melting glaciers of Greenland, a starving polar bear, droughts and wildfires that rage in one part of the world and floods and downpours that intensify in another.

Access, Assessment, Advancement

California wants to overhaul high school learning. This school is leading the way

Carolyn Jones, CalMatters

At CART High near Fresno, there is no gum stuck to the floor. The saffron-yellow walls are unmarred by graffiti. Toting laptops, students file calmly down spacious, light-filled hallways to classes like biotechnology and digital marketing. There’s no fighting, no shouting, no bells. No one even cuts class. It’s hard to believe CART High is a public high school. But in the future, this may be a model for every high school in California. “We can see from the data that the big, old-fashioned factory model of high school – where students run from class to class with a locker as their only stable point of contact – is not succeeding,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the State Board of Education. “We need to overhaul the whole idea of what high school can be, and right now we have an opportunity to do so.”

In Fourth Week, Government Shutdown Increasingly Hinders Higher Ed

Ryan Quinn and Kathryn Palmer, Inside HigherEd

As the federal government shutdown entered its fourth week Wednesday, some colleges, universities and researchers are feeling the added strain on a system that’s faced a string of major disruptions since Donald Trump retook the presidency in January. “What always happens is the longer it goes on, the more impacts you start to see,” said Tobin Smith, senior vice president for government relations and public policy at the Association of American Universities. Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, said the shutdown means continued financial uncertainty, not just for institutions and researchers—who may struggle with financial planning if grants aren’t being renewed, as well as with cash flow—but also for students who rely on Federal Work-Study and other student aid.

After court forces release of Trump’s billion-dollar settlement demands, UC opposition groups turn to next goals

Julia Barajas, LAist

After losing a public records lawsuit last week, the University of California has released the 27-page settlement proposal it received from the Trump administration’s Justice Department. After court forces release of Trump’s billion-dollar settlement demands, UC opposition groups turn to next goals The release followed a September lawsuit from the UCLA Faculty Association and the Council of University of California Faculty Associations, under the California Public Records Act. “For the folks who are going to be most impacted —students, workers, parents, faculty — the devil is in the details,” said UCLA Faculty Association President Anna Markowitz.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Teaching on economic crises builds immunity to populism, report

Una Hajdari, EuroNews

In an era of growing polarisation, rising inequality, and resurgent populism, a new report argues that teaching economic crises in history classrooms is more than a lesson about recessions — it is a lesson in democracy. According to The Observatory on History Teaching in Europe, a platform of the Council of Europe, learning about past economic shocks helps students resist scapegoating narratives and build democratic resilience. “Crises in public finances and national currencies, as well as rising inflation, have caused continuous or recurring economic instability in numerous European countries, which has been closely linked to rising social inequalities, xenophobia, and the questioning of democratic values,” the report stated.

Burlington School District leaders reflect on a racial equity success

Auditi Guha, VT Digger

Burlington School District leaders announced last week that they have reached a major milestone in efforts to reduce racial bias. Data from the last school year indicates that students of color — about 42% of the population — represented only 33% of suspensions across the pre-K-12 school district. This is a drop from the 2021-2022 school year when students of color – 38% of the population – represented 50% of suspensions in the school district. The total number of suspensions across the roughly 3,200-student district has also decreased from 248 two years ago to 207 the last school year, according to the release. The Vermont Agency of Education defines educational equity as the degree of achievement, fairness and opportunity in education as measured by a standard of success.

School District That Sued For Educational Funding Equity Could Close Without a State Budget

Steve Ulrich, PoliticsPA

The Pennsylvania school district that challenged the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s school funding system says it will have to close in January unless the state comes to a resolution on its budget impasse. The William Penn School District in Delaware County sued the Pennsylvania Department of Education in 2014 and in 2023, the state Commonwealth Court found that Pennsylvania’s school funding system violates the state constitution’s education clause and equal protection provisions. But during Monday night’s meeting of the school board, superintendent Dr. Eric Becoats announced that the district only has enough cash to operate its schools for approximately three months unless the state budget is approved.

Democracy and the Public Interest

Why ‘School Choice’ Doesn’t Feel Empowering to Many Families

Mary-Liz Shaw, EdSurge

Bailey Brown was 4 when her parents had her tested for New York’s gifted-and-talented program. Growing up in Brooklyn in the 1990s, Brown had little understanding at the time why she was taking the test or what her answers meant to her examiner. Years later, however, Brown realized how high the stakes were for her parents, who “waited anxiously for my results, wondering what would happen if my score was not above the 90th percentile,” as she writes in “Kindergarten Panic: Parental Anxiety and School Choice Inequality.” Her parents’ experiences sailing the rough seas of school choice in New York stayed with Brown, now an assistant professor of sociology at Spelman College. And those experiences became the impetus for Brown’s research into how parents choose an elementary school in the country’s largest school system.

‘The Librarians’ Centers the Educators Fighting Book Bans (Film Review)

Matt Minton, The Progressive

Like many public service workers across the United States, librarians have found themselves in the crosshairs of the far right’s widespread efforts to censor material written by and about people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. In The Librarians, a documentary which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, Oscar-nominated director Kim A. Snyder centers the voices of librarians, teachers, and students who have become crucial defenders of the First Amendment. Snyder started covering local efforts to protect freedom of speech and expression in 2021, after former Texas lawmaker Matt Krause asked school districts across the state whether they possessed titles from a list of 850 books, many of which deal with racism, sexuality, and U.S. history, that he said “might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”

It’s time to formalize student power in California

Muirelle Pham, Ed Source

When my classmate’s younger brother refused to go back to school after hearing a rumor that immigration officers were coming, I realized how fragile a student’s sense of safety can be. Most people think education policy starts in Sacramento, shaped by legislators and administrators. But often, it begins in classrooms, where students experience firsthand what is broken and decide to fix it. Across California, students have been pushing for real reform, from access to mental health care to immigrant safety, from overlooked financial literacy to menstrual equity. It is we who notice the gaps, find solutions and rally our peers. Our voices are not peripheral; they are the foundation of genuine progress.

Other News of Note

Ferguson organizer offers a blueprint for student-led activism in his new book (Audio)

Emily Woodbury, St. Louis Public Radio

Jonathan Pulphus was a sophomore at St. Louis University in 2014 when Michael Brown Jr. was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson. In the weeks that followed, he hoped for a certain acknowledgment and action from the university that never came. “[I] felt like SLU had a real tepid, kind of nonchalant and indifferent response to what was happening less than 10 miles away from the campus. There were no calls for that humanistic mission that invited me and made me feel like I was a part of the Billiken family,” Pulphus said. “I felt betrayed, and I felt like they weren’t honoring [that mission] by ignoring and neglecting what was happening in the community. So that lit a fire under me.” Pulphus joined and led many protests in the St. Louis region and on campus during the Ferguson Uprising. In his new book, “With My People: Life, Justice, and Activism Beyond the University,” Pulphus shares the lessons he learned as a young community organizer during the first nine months of the movement.

Oakland students walk out of class to support climate bill (Audio)

Padma Balaji and Julia Haney, KALW

In Oakland, dozens of students walked out of class on Friday to support a state climate bill — the “Make Polluters Pay Superfund Act,” which includes SB 684 in the Senate and AB 1243 in the Assembly. Students held walkouts across the state, including at Berkeley High School. “The Climate Superfund bill would require the top fossil fuel polluters, big oil, to pay their fair share for the climate crisis,” said Isabel Penman, an organizer with Food and Water Watch who helped coordinate the walkout. “And that money would go to the state of California to invest in climate resiliency programs so that taxpayers — regular Californians — aren’t the only ones footing the bill.” Similar bills have passed in New York and Vermont. Students held signs that read “Make big oil pay” and “Clean power to the people” as they chanted, “PG&E you can’t hide; we can see your greedy side.”