Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

Her students reported her for a lesson on race. Can she trust them again?

Hannah Natanson, Washington Post

As gold sunlight filtered into her kitchen, English teacher Mary Wood shouldered a worn leather bag packed with first-day-of-school items: Three lesson-planning notebooks. Two peanut butter granola bars. An extra pair of socks, just in case. Everything was ready, but Wood didn’t leave. For the first time since she started teaching 14 years ago, she was scared to go back to school.

Six months earlier, two of Wood’s Advanced Placement English Language and Composition students had reported her to the school board for teaching about race. Wood had assigned her all-White class readings from Ta-Nehisi Coates’s “Between the World and Me,” a book that dissects what it means to be Black in America.

Florida’s Attacks on Education Threaten Science

Alyssa Shearer and Alex Music, Scientific American

As students across the U.S. begin the school year, many will find their classrooms changed by politics. More than 19 states, from Idaho to North Carolina, have embraced “educational intimidation” laws or policies. They target discussions on race, gender and sexuality, and will influence all disciplines, including the sciences. In Florida, presidential contender Governor Ron DeSantis has embraced such educational coercion as an extension of his antiscience agenda. From scrapping with the College Board over the Advanced Placement Psychology course’s gender and sexuality unit to approving antiscience revisionist resources like PragerU for classroom use, Florida has led a nationwide battle against accurate and socially conscious education.

Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics

Pew Research

Americans have long been critical of politicians and skeptical of the federal government. But today, Americans’ views of politics and elected officials are unrelentingly negative, with little hope of improvement on the horizon. Majorities say the political process is dominated by special interests, flooded with campaign cash and mired in partisan warfare. Elected officials are widely viewed as self-serving and ineffective. A comprehensive new Pew Research Center study of the state of the nation’s politics finds no single focal point for the public’s dissatisfaction. There is widespread criticism of the three branches of government, both political parties, as well as political leaders and candidates for office.

Language, Culture, and Power

Thousands of migrant kids are starting school in NYC. Is the system prepared? [Audio]

Jasmine Garsd, NPR’s All Things Considered

For many New York kids, summer break means a summer job. Or summer school. Or hanging out in the city with friends. For 13-year-old Vanessa, this summer was spent selling fruit snacks outside a subway stop in midtown Manhattan with her mother. Mango slices, watermelon chunks and cucumber sticks. Vanessa arrived recently from Ecuador. She’s in the midst of seeking asylum in the U.S. Her mother, Alejandra, is undocumented and asked that their last name be withheld, in order to protect their family back home. “They are killing people there. There are kidnappings, rapes. I had to take the kids out.”

The One Million Tibetan Children in China’s Boarding Schools

Gyal Lo, New York Times

One day in late November 2016, back home in Tibet, I received a distressing call from my brother telling me I needed to check on his granddaughters. “Something very strange is happening,” he said. My young relatives, who were 4 and 5 years old at the time, had just enrolled in a boarding preschool that the Chinese government had established in my hometown, Kanlho, a seminomadic region in the northeast corner of the Tibetan plateau. Their new school was one of many — I have personally tracked about 160 in three Tibetan prefectures alone — and part of Beijing’s growing network of preschools in which Tibetan children are separated from their families and communities and assimilated into Chinese culture.

In Texas, a Black High School Student Is Suspended Over His Hair Length

Christine Hauser, New York Times

Soon after starting his junior year last month at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, Darryl George was separated from his classmates because of the way he wears his hair, his mother and a lawyer said. Since the term began on Aug. 16, Darryl, a 17-year-old Black student, has received multiple disciplinary notices that have culminated in more than a week of in-school suspension, where he sits on a stool in a cubicle and work is brought to him, according to his mother, Darresha George. Each morning, he is asked by officials at the school, about 30 miles east of Houston, whether he has cut his hair yet, she said. He has not.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

Oakland International High School: A Thriving Community School for Oakland’s Newcomer Students

Charlie Thompson, Learning Policy Institute

Entering Oakland International High School is like walking into a brighter and more welcoming world. More than 35 languages—and nearly as many countries of origin—are represented across the student population. Every student at the school is a newcomer, which means they have been in the United States for fewer than 3 years. Newcomers comprise approximately 3% of all California public school students in any given year and are a diverse group who bring a wealth of assets, as well as a set of challenges, with them. Most have a home language that is not English. Some have experienced limited or interrupted formal education, some are refugees, and an increasing number are unaccompanied minors. Many must navigate a new culture and language in addition to complex legal proceedings to establish citizenship.

Painting, music, dance, theater — coming to a school near you [Audio]

Allison Gamlen and Karen D’Souza, Reporter, EdSource

Arts and music have long been slashed from many school budgets, but all California schools are about to see new, ongoing investment in the arts — equal to about $1 billion this year. Listen to the story of one arts teacher and hear from our reporter about how art can help students grow, and what students and parents can expect to see at their schools.

Program uses the arts to enlighten students about other cultures [Photos]

Shmuel Thaler, Santa Cruz Sentinel

Avila Wheelock and her fellow Vine Hill Elementary School fourth graders work on their Balinese dance hand movements during a visit to the Scotts Valley school by Noni Andarawati, a dancer originally from Klungkung, Bali. Andarawati, and teaching artists from around the world who live locally, are working with students at Vine Hill through Wide Wide World, Tandy Beal & Co’s ArtSmart arts education program. Anderawati is joined in this year’s lineup by Ikuyo Conant from Japan, Papiba Godhino from Brazil, Keith Cowans whose heritage is Cuban, Noni Mehana Thomas and Becky Shingai from Hawai’i, Dror Sinai from the Middle East (Israel, Syria and Turkey), Ryan Boun from Cambodia, Mohamed Bangoura from Guinea Conackry and Izumi Sato, who was born in Japan and lived and studied in India for many years. Tandy Beal said, “Our goal is to stimulate children’s appetite for learning about this magnificent world we live in, with all the many inspiring cultures. Besides dance and music skills, students gain greater geographic knowledge, respect for the diversity and beauty of other cultures, and learn a few words in another language.” Sponsors of this year’s program include California Arts Council, Hewlett and Packard foundations and the Vine Hill PTA.

Access, Assessment, Advancement

Advocates urge permanent immigration solution after another unfavorable DACA ruling

Zaidee Stavely, EdSource

Immigrant rights advocates are urging Congress to create a permanent solution for undocumented immigrants, after a federal judge last week ruled Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals illegal again. The decision does not change anything for DACA recipients or potential applicants. No new applications will be accepted, but current DACA recipients are still able to apply to renew their status every two years. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Texas first found DACA unlawful in 2022, after Texas and other states sued the U.S. government over the program. In his ruling, he said part of what made it unlawful was because when President Barack Obama first created the program, there was no public comment period. President Joe Biden responded by issuing a new rule and opening a public comment period, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Hanen to decide whether this would change his ruling. Last week, Hanen declared the new rule did not change anything, and he again found DACA to be illegal.

16 states underfunded historically Black land-grant universities, Biden administration says

AP News

Historically Black land-grant universities in Tennessee and 15 other states have missed out on $12.6 billion in funding over the last three decades, according to the Biden administration. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack sent letters to the governors of each state asking them to increase funding, news outlets reported. The letter said the largest disparity was in Tennessee, where Tennessee State University has been underfunded by $2.1 billion dollars.

Elite Universities and The Making of Privilege

Cynthia Lawson, LSE Blogs

In Elite Universities and The Making of Privilege, Kalwant Bhopal and Martin Myers highlight the extensive role that elite universities play in maintaining the status quo. At a time where society seem to value and work toward social equality (with the upsurge in intake of students from non-traditional backgrounds such as first-generation students or students of colour), “racism”, “classism”, “elitism” and “white privilege” are terms that one might think are growing less relevant. However, the authors unveil a different picture of the realities faced by students and show how elite universities serve as a catalyst for pre-existing inequalities.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Rising tides, sinking chalkboards: How climate change threatens Bangladesh’s primary education

Tasfia Tasneem Ahmed, The Daily Star

One issue that often gets drowned out in the cacophony of discussions surrounding climate change is how the crisis is affecting our children and their education. According to Save the Children and Unicef, children are among the most affected by extreme weather events – like tidal surges, cyclones, flooding and desertification – all caused by climate change. Approximately 20 million Bangladeshi children are already significantly exposed to climate threats, and 12 million kids who live near and along river systems face the increased risk of fatal flooding. And strong cyclones frequently affect another 4.5 million children living in the coastal region. Climate change affects children and their education through several channels. First, economic challenges due to climate-related impacts may force families to prioritise immediate needs over educational expenses, lowering school enrolment rates. This feeds the cycle of inequality and constrained opportunity. Child labour may also go up due to climate change-induced poverty, as nearly half of the labouring population is dependent on the climate-sensitive agriculture sector.

A Newborn’s Unexpected First Piece of Mail [Audio]

Maurice BP Weeks, “Indebted,” A Convergence Series

Welcome to Indebted, a 10-part, weekly exploration of debt and race in America. This new podcast from Convergence is hosted by economic and racial justice organizer Maurice BP-Weeks. The series begins with his new baby’s first piece of mail: a $4000 hospital bill.

Los Angeles Tenants Have Consistently Organized to Defend Public Housing — Because It Works

Jacob Woocher, Jacobin

“What is happening here in Jordan Downs is going to happen to each one of the [other] developments,” declared Claudia Moore, a leader of the citywide movement of public housing tenants, speaking at a press conference on February 24, 1989. Earlier that month, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) had announced a plan to sell off Jordan Downs, a seven-hundred-unit complex located in the heart of the South Los Angeles Watts neighborhood, to the highest bidder. Los Angeles’s war on public housing had officially begun.

Democracy and the Public Interest

Parents And Caregivers For Inclusive Education

Maya Henson Carey, Learning for Justice

Public school students in the United States today are the most racially diverse in the country’s history. Embracing this diversity can assist us in building a healthy multiracial democracy. In addition, surveys and research have consistently demonstrated that the majority of parents and caregivers in the U.S. support honest education that is inclusive. A close examination of the current push by lawmakers—especially in legislatures with hard-right affiliations—to censor teaching about race and racism and to attack student-inclusive education reveals a pattern of weaponizing classrooms and curricula to serve an extremist political agenda. In the article “Centering Diverse Parents in the CRT Debate,” Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D., points out that “some politicians are focusing on ‘parents’ rights’ to disrupt efforts to create more equitable and inclusive education environments. … This insidious strategy normalizes prejudiced white parents, casting them against phantom teachers who are ‘indoctrinating their children.’”

Study Finds That State-Mandated Civics Test Policy Does Not Improve Youth Voter Turnout

Tony Pals and Marla Koenigsknecht, AERA

The United States has the largest age gap in voter turnout among advanced democracies. Youth voter turnout remained low, at 48 percent, in 2020. Scholars, educators, and policymakers often recommend civic education as a solution to low youth voter turnout. However, new research finds that a commonly used state-mandated civics test policy—the Civics Education Initiative —does not improve youth voter turnout, at least in the short term. The study, by Jilli Jung and Maithreyi Gopalan, both at Pennsylvania State University, was published today in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.

School board changes can destroy students’ educational opportunities. We’re paying attention.

JJ Briscoe, Kansas Reflector

As a student who attended the Gardner-Edgerton School District from middle school through high school, graduating only four years ago, it breaks my heart to know my 17-year-old sister has not been enjoying the same quality of education that I did. When I first came to Gardner in the 5th grade, my family worried about how I would perform in a district known to deliver an education that punched above its weight. If it were not for my time in the Gardner-Edgerton district, I do not know if I would have been able to achieve my wildest dreams. Through the support of the school and connection with the community, I was able to study abroad in Brazil for a year, which fortified my perception of the world class education offered by the district.

In Brazil, I saw the reality of when public schools are designated only for the poor, and what a heavy reliance on private school education means for the class divide. I am worried about that becoming the reality for our community’s students, including for my sister.

Other News of Note

Solidarity Now

Mia Inouye, Boston Review

At a fundraiser for a political organization this spring, a first-generation Asian American organizer from a working-class background asked me, “Why do you organize?” The organizer—call him Henry—had requested three times that I put on a name tag, and each time I had silently refused, so we were engaged in a subtle but protracted conflict. He was being friendly, but he was also trying to organize me. I answered honestly because I was irritated. “I organize because I need to organize,” I said, “not really because I expect to change the world in any big ways. I just need to have meetings to go to. And I hope that through my actions I am generating possibilities that other people will take up in unexpected ways and that may actually bring about a revolution, even if not in my lifetime and not as a direct result of my actions.”

Sept. 22, 1862: Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

On Sept. 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It said that on Jan. 1, 1863, “… all persons held as slaves within any State, or any designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free.” The Emancipation Proclamation applied only to the 10 states that were still in rebellion. Bill Bigelow notes in a lesson called “A War to Free the Slaves?”:

Few documents in U.S. history share the hallowed reputation of the Emancipation Proclamation. Many, perhaps most, of my students have heard of it. They know — at least vaguely — that it pronounced freedom for enslaved African Americans, and earned President Abraham Lincoln the title of Great Emancipator. This lesson asks students to think about what these documents reveal about Lincoln’s war aims. Was it a war to free the slaves? Lincoln never said it was. Most textbooks don’t even say it was. And yet the myth persists: It was the war to free the slaves.