Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

Teaching Reproductive Justice

Sarah E. Chinn and Kimberly Mutcherson, Radical Teacher

Reproductive justice is a challenging concept for many people, not least because it puts marginalized people, especially women of color, at its core. As formulated by a group of Black women in advance of the UN’s 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, reproductive justice pushes beyond the politics of what in the 1990s was decorously and euphemistically called “choice.” As Women of African Descent for Reproductive Justice, this organization bought a full-page ad in the Washington Post and in Roll Call (the publication that covers Congress) laying out their agenda.

A principal lost her job after she came out. Her conservative community rallied around her 

Laura Pappano, Hechinger Report

Principal Lauren Dressback didn’t think about it after it happened. After all, she was workplace-close with Wesley Smith, the custodian at Cahaba Heights Elementary School, in this affluent suburb of Birmingham. She called him “the mayor.” She said that he knew her two children, asked about her family almost daily and made a point of interacting. “Every day, a huge bear hug,” she recalled. So, when Dressback, just after last Valentine’s Day, asked Smith to come into the nurse’s office and shut the door, and then shared three photos on her phone of who she had just started dating, it felt ordinary. Afterward, she said, “I just moved right on about my day.” 

But the 2 minute, 13 second-exchange — captured on video by the nurse — would prove fateful. 

5 high school students from around the country have been named National Student Poets

Hillel Italie, AP News

Five high school students, residing far from each other while sharing visions of community and self-expression, have been named National Student Poets. Each of the poets will represent different parts of the country. Robert Gao of University Laboratory High School in Champaign, Illinois, will cover the Midwest. Marcus Burns of Vermont’s St. Johnsbury Academy will be based in the Northeast. Nadia Wright of Murrah High School in Jackson, Mississippi, will be the poet for the Southeast. Sofia Kamal of Rancho Solano Preparatory School in Phoenix, Arizona, is the student poet for the Southwest and the West’s regional poet is Anya Melchinger of Mid-Pacific Institute in Honolulu. The National Student Poets Program is a partnership of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, which presents the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, whose winners helped form the pool of student poet finalists. The poets, each of whom will receive $5,000, will spend the next year engaging with young people through readings, workshops and other projects.

Language, Culture, and Power

New law requires California schools to teach about historical mistreatment of Native Americans

Sophie Austin, AP News

For Johnny Hernandez Jr., vice chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Southern California, it was difficult as a kid growing up around San Bernardino to hear two different accounts of the histories of Indigenous peoples in the state. One account came from his elders and was based on their lived experiences, and another came from his teachers at school and glossed over decades of mistreatment Native American people faced. “You have your family, but then you have the people you’re supposed to respect — teachers and the administration,” he said. “As a kid — I’ll speak for myself — it is confusing to … know who’s telling the truth.”

Now a bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday requires public schools teaching elementary, middle or high school students about Spanish colonization and the California gold rush to include instruction on the mistreatment and contributions of Native Americans during during those periods.

Asian American Memory Activism: A Roundtable Discussion

Linda Hasunuma, Mary McCarthy, Asia-Pacific Journal

In 2019, two political scientists, Dr. Mary M. McCarthy and Dr. Linda C. Hasunuma, proposed gathering a group of scholars and activists to enter into a dialogue about Asian American memory activism, the products of which could then be disseminated more widely to scholarly and public audiences. We were privileged to be joined by Dr. Jung-Sil Lee, Ms. Kathy Masaoka, Ms. Judith Mirkinson, and Judge Lillian Sing in this endeavor, as we sought to explore the interaction between activism and scholarship and the varied roles of activists and scholars in Asian American memory activism. Intended as a year-long discussion culminating in a roundtable at the 2020 Memory Studies Association annual meeting in Charlottesville, Virginia,1 the pandemic both upended our plans and made them more critical than ever. The rise in anti-Asian hate incidents and crimes, both in the United States and across the world, from 2020 highlighted how failure to acknowledge history and learn from it has dire consequences for the realities of those in the present and the future.

I oversaw education on Rikers Island. Early mistakes don’t have to define a young person’s life.

Tim Lisante, Chalkbeat

For the tens of thousands of New York students who graduated from high school in June, the beginning of the school year also marks the end of their required education. Many of them are pursuing advanced two- and four-year degrees at colleges and universities, while others have enrolled in vocational training programs or are entering the workforce. In some ways, the opportunities for these teenagers seem endless. But as the former superintendent of New York City’s District 79 — the city’s alternative schools district, which includes Rikers Island jail complex — I can assure you that this is certainly not the case for everyone.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

Shaping minds, shattering stereotypes: Kerala to introduce sexual orientation, gender identity in education

Dileep V Kumar, South First

In a groundbreaking move set to reshape the younger generation’s perspectives, the Kerala government has decided to introduce topics like Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) in the state’s education system. These critical issues will now be an integral part of both general and higher education syllabuses. The decision to integrate SOGIESC into the curriculum follows various court directives and is driven by the need to address widespread misconceptions and prejudices. By incorporating scientifically accurate and socially relevant information, the state aims to challenge the deeply ingrained stereotypes that often marginalise gender and sexual minorities.

How you can help women, children and LGBTQ+ people impacted by Hurricane Helene

Jessica Kutz, Orion Rummler, The 19th

The destruction of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida on Thursday as a Category 4 storm, is coming sharply into focus as the death toll has continued to climb in North and South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. Tennessee and Virginia have also seen devastating impacts. So far over 100 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds more are missing. Millions in the Southeast are still without power, and many communities are dealing with catastrophic flooding. Homes and roads have been destroyed by the storm, leaving residents stranded or without shelter. Climate change makes hurricanes more destructive by increasing rainfall and storm surge, and some research has linked the rapid intensification of hurricanes like Helene to warming ocean waters.

Midwest Dispatch: It’s Back to Active Shooter Drill Season

Sarah Lahm, The Progressive

It bothers me that Vice President Kamala Harris told a national audience recently that not only does she own a gun, but that anyone who breaks into her house will get shot. I get it—her appeal has to extend far beyond the blue, lefty bubble that I inhabit in South Minneapolis—but I still find myself disturbed by the confession she made during her interview with Oprah Winfrey. Data from the Pew Research Center shows that about one-third of adults in the United States own a gun, meaning most people do not. I am not here to pass judgment on anyone, including Harris, who wants or feels they need to possess a firearm, but somehow her comments continue to ring in my ears as insensitive and unnecessary. Maybe that’s because it’s active shooter drill season again and the topic of people getting shot feels a bit raw.

Access, Assessment, Advancement

Testing and Accountability: The Federal Role

NEPC

Today’s Q&A focuses on the federal role assessment and accountability in K-12 education. Responses are provided by Lorrie Shepard, Distinguished Professor Emerita in the School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder. Shepard is a nationally recognized expert on both large-scale assessment such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress and in classroom assessment grounded in research on teaching and learning.

Why many college students are forced to spend more on housing than tuition

Laura Barrón-López, Sam Lane, and Sam Weber, PBS Newshour

The cost of housing has risen steeply in recent years, including for college students. Living in a dorm or renting an off-campus apartment can be the single largest expense a student faces, even more than tuition. Laura Barrón-López reports on how students are coping with the high cost of living and how some universities are responding. It’s the first part of our fall series, Rethinking College.

California bans legacy admissions at colleges. The end of affirmative action is a reason why

Mikhail Zinshteyn, CalMatters

California will now ban legacy admissions at California private colleges, even though few colleges admit students that way. Bill supporters say it will signal to students that college is for them in the aftermath of the national ban on affirmative action. California’s private nonprofit colleges will no longer be able to grant students an admissions advantage if their parents donated to or went to the same college after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law this morning banning the practice. The state joins a rarefied group of four others that have passed laws banning legacy admissions. Colleges will still be allowed to admit students with alumni or donor ties, but they’ll no longer be able to grant preferential treatment to those applicants in the admissions process. “In California, everyone should be able to get ahead through merit, skill, and hard work,” Newsom wrote in a press statement. “The California Dream shouldn’t be accessible to just a lucky few, which is why we’re opening the door to higher education wide enough for everyone, fairly.”

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Accumulation of Opportunities Predicts the Educational Attainment and Adulthood Earnings of Children Born into Low- Versus Higher-Income Households

Eric Dearing, Andres S. Bustamante, Henrik D. Zachrisson, Deborah Lowe Vandell, AERA

Education scholars theorize that “opportunity gaps” – inequitable access to experiences and settings that support learning – drive achievement disparities between children born into poverty versus affluence. In a 26-year longitudinal study of children (n = 814) from low- and higher-income families, we examine (1) disparity in the accumulation of opportunities at home, childcare, school, afterschool, and in the neighborhood from birth through high school, (2) the extent to which opportunity is linked with educational attainment and earnings in early adulthood, and (3) whether opportunity is most strongly associated with these adult outcomes for children from low-income households. We document large opportunity gaps between children from low- versus higher-income households. These opportunity gaps are strongly linked with educational attainment and earnings, particularly for low-income children, helping explain why household income in early childhood predicts these outcomes in adulthood.

Mrs. Barbara Ross and the Fight for Educational Equity

Marlee S. Bunch, Black Perspectives

Earlier this year, we celebrated the 70th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. As we look to the future, it is an opportune time to pause and consider the dreams and civic liberties that Brown entailed. Despite Brown’s intentions, we know there is much that has yet to be fulfilled, as we are faced with what has been coined the resegregation of schools, in which “school segregation between Black and white students has returned to 1968 levels, even though the nation grows more diverse.” As we grapple with concerns such as these in our school systems, it is worth evaluating how we can bring to fruition Brown’s intention to help the goal of equitable education. 

One in three teens have no access to period products, shocking poverty study finds

Brittany Miller, The Independent

Teens are increasingly struggling to afford and gain access to period products such as pads and tampons. According to a study from the Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC, the concept of period poverty, or the lack of access to period products and general education regarding the menstrual cycle, affects young women of all races, ethnicities, and health insurance backgrounds equally. “Youth who are living in neighborhoods with high opportunity had similar rates of experiencing menstrual inequity as those living in areas or neighborhoods that were underresourced,” the study’s co-author Meleah Boyle, a staff scientist at Children’s National said in an interview with NBC News. “This is impacting everyone.”

Democracy and the Public Interest

College students voted in big numbers in 2020. Are they ready to do it again?

Jon Marcus, Christian Science Monitor

Bethany Blonder and her friends line up at the voter information table in the student union before organizers have even finished setting it up in time for lunch. It’s true that a fire drill has chased them there from their dorm on the campus of The College of New Jersey, or TCNJ. But the women are also quick to rattle off what they see as the existential issues that make them hell-bent on casting their ballots in the general election. Climate change, for instance. “All of our lives are at risk – our futures – and the lives of our neighbors, the lives of our friends,” says Ms. Blonder, a freshman from Ocean Township, New Jersey. “Every time there’s a hot day outside, I’m like, ‘Is this what it will be like for the rest of my life?’”

Trial of the Century:  The Scopes trial and the battle over religion in US politics.

Michael Kazin, The Nation

Why should we care about “the Trial of the Century” nearly a century after it happened? Many Americans have long understood the 1925 prosecution of John Scopes in Dayton, Tennessee, for breaking a new state law that forbade teaching “the Evolution Theory” in public schools as a conflict of profound simplicity in which religious bigotry clashed with scientific reason. In it, Clarence Darrow, a veteran stalwart of the legal left, skillfully defended Scopes, a biology instructor, while William Jennings Bryan, a thrice-failed nominee for president and devout fundamentalist, clumsily led the case for the state. The trial was broadcast to the entire the nation over an enterprising radio hookup

Threats, Opportunities, and the Future of U.S. Elections [Audio]

Scholars Strategy Network’s No Jargon

With the 2024 presidential election just around the corner, Professor Paul Gronke joins us for a conversation about the U.S. voting system. He shares insights into the challenges of election security, the increasing harassment faced by officials on the front lines, and how the “Stop the Steal” movement has shaken public trust. Can the current voting system handle threats to the election? And what reforms are needed to rebuild trust in our elections? Professor Gronke dives into these complexities and discusses what’s at stake for democracy in 2024. For more on this topic: Visit the Elections & Voting Information Center for nonpartisan research on election administration. 

Other News of Note

Toni Morrison on Fascism and Censorship [Reprint]

Sherell Barbee and Toni Morrison, In These Times

From 1977 to 1979, June Jordan and Toni Morrison were both a part of The Sisterhood, a group of Black women writers who met in a New York City apartment to eat and drink together while discussing liberation. Whether addressing genocide, imperialism or the American literary establishment, the writers in the group, which included Alice Walker and Ntozake Shange, saw their work as a means to make interventions against dominant narratives of colonialism and oppression. Their words ring prescient. In ​“Peril” (2008) and ​“Racism and Fascism” (1995), reprinted below, Morrison recognizes what the creep of fascism looks like, particularly the censorship of dissent.