Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

America’s Top Librarian on the Rise of Book Bans [Audio]

Tressie Mcmillan Cottom and Emily Drabinski, Ezra Klein Show

The library is as much an idea as it is a place. It promises books, yes, but also services, access and public infrastructure in an information-based economy. For a long time, the idea that we all generally want more of what the library offers has been a taken-for-granted American value. But recently, libraries have become a political lightning rod, where even the most basic assumption of the value of this essential public good is now somehow controversial. According to the American Library Association, last year there were 1,269 attempts to censor what materials appeared in public libraries. Across the nation, there are contentious debates raging over things like drag story hours, children’s programming and even what books and programming should be available for adults in public and school libraries.

California pushing back on school book bans

Carolyn Jones, CalMatters

While some states have been banning books by the hundreds, California appears headed in the opposite direction — enacting a law that would penalize local school boards that block any book reflecting the state’s diversity. Gov. Gavin Newsom is poised to sign Assembly Bill 1078, which is intended to prevent school boards from banning books based solely on the books’ inclusion of history or culture related to Black, Latino, Asian, Native American, LGBTQ people or other groups. It expands the state’s existing education code requiring schools to include the experiences of racial, ethnic and LGBTQ groups in curriculum. “(This bill) offers a clear statement from the Legislature and governor about California’s commitment to free inquiry and non-discrimination in our public schools,” said UCLA education professor John Rogers, who’s studied book bans. “That’s always been important, but it’s particularly important now, as we’re seeing efforts in some areas to challenge the role of the public school as an instrument to promote the ideals of inclusion and diverse democracy.”

A Big New Report on American Children Is Out. It’s Horrific.

Jill Filipovic, Slate

A new Human Rights Watch report paints a damning portrait of children’s rights in the United States. That is, children here have remarkably few rights and are particularly ill-treated in the conservative states that claim the mantle of “family values.” According to HRW, “Children in the US can be legally married in 41 states, physically punished by school administrators in 47 states, sentenced to life without parole in 22 states, and work in hazardous agriculture conditions in all 50 states.” Over and over again, the worst states for children are clustered around the “pro-life” Bible Belt, and the map of the states that are the worst for children looks a lot like a map of red-state America. (Liberal states, too, have a long ways to go when it comes to protecting kids, but they generally do a bit better.)

Language, Culture, and Power

A ban on wearing the abaya in French schools is causing an uproar [AUDIO]

Eleanor Beardsley, NPR

As students in France return to school this week, some have to reconsider their usual outfits. It isn’t that crop tops or short shorts are banned. It’s actually the exact opposite. The long, body-covering tunic that’s often worn by Muslim women – known as the abaya – is now forbidden in French middle and high schools. France’s highest court upheld the ban last night. But as NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports, the abaya uproar is far from over.

Black CPS teens benefit most from shift from suspensions toward restorative practices

Sarah Karp, WBEZ, Chicago

Switching to restorative practices to respond to student misconduct in Chicago schools has led to a significant reduction in suspensions and arrests, as well as improvements in how students perceive their school climate, according to a groundbreaking study. Black male students saw the greatest benefits, according to the University of Chicago Education Lab, which says this is the first study of the effects of a large-scale implementation of restorative practices on an education system. Those practices try to help students understand the consequences of their behavior and repair harm, and represent a shift away from exclusionary practices, such as suspending and expelling students.

Korean American studies class aims to build empathy in wake of anti-Asian hate [AUDIO]

Education Beat Podcast

When anti-Asian hate crimes began to spike in 2020, world history teacher Jeff Kim searched for a way to respond “with love and wisdom.” His answer: to help students to know and tell their own stories of resilience through a Korean American studies course. Listen to how this course — the first of its kind — began at Anaheim Union High School District, and what it aims to teach students.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

How much is extreme weather hindering learning?

Kara Arundel, K-12 Dive

Climate Action Campaign, a group of national environmental and public health organizations, has published a school closure story map that tells where classes have been canceled due to extreme weather events. The website, published Thursday, shows public and private K-12 school closures based on news reports in six states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — where the Climate Action Campaign has increased presence.

We’re Failing Our Children By Not Passing Gun Control

Lindsay Karp, The Progressive

WWhen I see my children exit the school building each afternoon at dismissal, I breathe a sigh of relief. This fear follows me from one day to the next—from one school year to another. As a new school year begins and another presidential election draws near, nothing else matters until our children are safe at school. There are countless broken branches of our political system. Between solidifying women’s inalienable rights, passing environmental policies to preserve our future, and ensuring healthcare access for all, we have our work cut out for us for decades. But as a mother, I cannot begin to consider my access to a legal abortion or solutions to climate change until my children can enter their school building and be guaranteed to survive the day.

Philadelphia teachers’ Outward Bound canoe expedition helps build them bonds and skills

Carly Sitrin, Chalkbeat Philadelphia

In the waning days of summer, a group of Philadelphia teachers gathered on the banks of the Delaware River for an exercise in teamwork — and geometry. Their assignment: Determine the width of the river they would be canoeing on for a week. The catch: They’d have no tools or instruments to measure it with.

Access, Assessment, Advancement

Despite protests, CSU approves 6% tuition increase

Laura Anaya-Morga, Long Beach Post News

Despite loud protests this week, many students in the 23-system Cal State University system will pay 6% more for tuition starting in fall 2024. The Cal State University Board of Trustees passed the increase Wednesday in an effort to bridge a $1.5 billion funding gap, promising to provide more financial aid as part of the rise in the cost of education. The 6% five-year increase in tuition, the first since the 2011-12 academic year amounts to $342 per full-time resident undergraduate student, taking the annual tuition price from $5,742 per student to $6,084.

Charles Drew University in South Los Angeles Starts Its Own Medical School

Soumya Karlamangla, New York Times

When it comes to diversity, California’s medical work force looks far different from the state’s wider population. Latino and Black people make up 45 percent of California’s residents, but less than 10 percent of its physicians. Health care experts say this disparity can have a big effect on patients. There’s strong evidence that sharing a language and background with the practitioners who treat them can improve care and lead to better outcomes for patients from minority groups. Physicians are better able to understand their patients, and feel more connected to them and their well-being, said Dr. David Carlisle, president of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles.

Navigating College Applications: Myth Busting and Advice Under Race-Neutral Mandates

Jimmy Aguilar, The Messenger

As a new school year begins and high school seniors apply to college, a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action underscores a need to debunk myths and clarify what is up from down about race and admissions. I have seen these myths from a few angles. I was once a first-generation Latino college student from Southeast Los Angeles, who navigated UCLA and Harvard and then worked as a former admissions officer at Georgetown. Now, I am a Ph.D. student at USC’s Rossier School of Education studying equity in admissions, and I happen to be mentoring my niece as she applies to college this year.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

America’s poverty rate soared last year. Children were among the worst hit.

Aimee Picchi, CBS News

Millions of American families fell into poverty last year as the well of government-funded pandemic aid dried up and incomes shrank, according to new data from the U.S. Census. Children were particularly hard-hit, with the poverty rate for kids doubling compared with 2021.

The surge in poverty is “stunning,” Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a statement. Parrott pointed to the end of the expanded federal Child Tax Credit in 2022 as a cause of the sharp increase in child poverty and called for lawmakers to reinstate the benefit. The rise in poverty amounts to an increase of 15.3 million people around the U.S. living in poverty, according to the left-leaning think tank.

Schools face a funding cliff. How bad will the fall be?

Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat

It’s an ominous phrase that is top of mind for many school district officials: the “funding cliff.” This refers to the imminent end of billions of dollars in federal COVID relief money that schools have been relying on during the pandemic. “The feds pushed a lot of money into the K-12 system,” said Lori Taylor, an education finance researcher at Texas A&M University. “Now the districts are being weaned off of that funding — they’re losing that shock absorber, that cushion.”

Moroccan education NGO starts relief effort [VIDEO]

CNN

Amal Zniber runs an education NGO in Morocco. She says after the earthquake hit, her team launched a mission to provide desperately-needed aid.

Democracy and the Public Interest

Children’s Voting Habits Could Influence Their Parents’ Political Participation

Sarah Schwartz, Education Week

Schools that run voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote campaigns usually have a straightforward goal—raise the number of students who exercise their rights to the franchise in the next election. But a new study suggests that getting more young people to vote could increase their parents’ political participation, too, paying dividends across generations. The research was published by the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy, a nonprofit that promotes civic education and civil discourse. The study found evidence of a trickle-down relationship in civic engagement: Most teenagers who voted in their first eligible presidential election had a mother who also voted.

What divides political parties? More than ever, it’s race and ethnicity.

Dan Baltz, Washington Post

In a polarized United States, what divides Democrats and Republicans the most isn’t gender or education or income or religion. It is the issue of race, whether in regard to the backgrounds of the voters who make up the two parties’ coalitions, or the conflicting agendas and priorities each side advocates in the pursuit of power. That reality is brought home in a report produced by the American Political Science Association (APSA) in partnership with the organization Protect Democracy. The findings on race are not necessarily new, but sometimes the obvious isn’t always obvious.

Sunol Glen School bans special interest flags on school property at tense meeting [Video]

Katie Nielsen, CBS

Dozens of protesters showed up in front of the Sunol Glen School in Sunol Tuesday night ahead of a controversial vote on whether to ban special interest flags on school property. The board voted in favor of the ban with two board members voting yes and one voting no. Opponents of the ban said it’s all in response to a rainbow pride flag being flown at the school in June during Pride Month. “This school is our community, like this school is Sunol,” said Erin Choin as she gestured toward the school, originally built in 1925. “We have the Sunol Repertory Theater that performs in this school. We have Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4H. I mean, every civic activity goes through this school,” she said.  Choin lives in Sunol and has three children who attend the public school that goes from preschool through 8th grade. That’s why she was so disappointed when she heard about the school board proposal to ban all special interest flags on school grounds. “When we show symbols of inclusion where everybody belongs and you can be who you are, especially at this formative age for children, then we feel like it’s a safe environment to be in,” said Choin.

Other News of Note

How Much Discomfort Is the Whole World Worth?

Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba, Boston Review

Organizing is not a process of ideological matchmaking. Most people’s politics will not mirror our own, and even people who identify with us strongly on some points will often differ sharply on others. When organizers do not fully understand each other’s beliefs or identities, people will often stumble and offend one another, even if they earnestly wish to build from a place of solidarity. Efforts to build diverse, intergenerational movements will always generate conflict and discomfort. But the desire to shrink groups down to spaces of easy agreement is not conducive to movement building. The forces that oppress us may compete and make war with one another, but when it comes to maintaining the order of capitalism and the hierarchy of white supremacy, they collaborate and work together based on their death-making and eliminationist shared interests. Oppressed people, on the other hand, often demand ideological alignment or even affinity when seeking to interrupt or upend structural violence. This tendency lends an advantage to the powerful that is not easily overcome.