Take Charge! Self-Advocacy in the Classroom

"...When children can communicate what they need, what their resources are and what they can do to achieve their goals, they become partners instead of pawns in the academic experience..."

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The Questions Education Reformers Aren’t Asking

A dig led by Mike Rose
Truthdig
August 2, 2010

...there seems to be little alternative thinking in the approach to school reform itself. And both elite and mainstream media have pretty much fallen in line with the reigning policy talk about the problems with our schools and how to fix them. As well, no one in power is asking the more fundamental questions like: What is the purpose of education in a democracy, and are our reforms enhancing—or possibly restricting—that purpose?

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Acrobatics for At-Risk Children

By Emilio Godoy
Inter Press Service
May 13, 2010

Learning to do aerial acrobatics has not only helped 13-year-old Atenas Padilla overcome her fear of heights, but also to become more tolerant and creative...

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The Tribe of SNCC

Comment by Tom Hayden
The Nation
April 21, 2010

Over a thousand gathered to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and to pass the torch to a new generation...

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Hundreds of Thousands Take Part in National Day of Action to Defend Public Education

DemocracyNow!
March 5, 2010

Students and teachers held hundreds of demonstrations on Thursday as part of the National Day of Action to Defend Public Education. Hundreds of thousands took part in what was the largest day of coordinated student protest in years. We get a roundup of the action on the streets, from California to New York.

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Interactive Map: Leaders and Laggards; A State-By-State Report Card of Educational Innovation

November 9, 2009

Two years ago, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Center for American Progress, and Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute came together to grade the states on school performance. In that first Leaders and Laggards report, we found much to applaud but even more that requires urgent improvement. In this follow-up report, we turn our attention to the future, looking not at how states are performing today, but at what they are doing to prepare themselves for the challenges that lie ahead...

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California Tuition Hikes Spark Protests

by Peter Phillips
Consortium News
November 23, 2009

It’s often said that California sets the trends for the rest of the United States – and that has surely been the case with the impact of tax cuts primarily benefiting the wealthy. California is facing a severe budget crisis, causing sharp cuts in public services.

The budget crisis also has forced steep tuition hikes at public universities, once free for all qualified students and the pride of California. Now, as students protest the higher charges, they are being met with police action – and with ridicule from the mainstream news media, as Peter Phillips recounts in this guest essay:

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Late governor's son takes '1 million steps' to Jacksonville

By Jessie-Lynne Kerr
Story updated at 6:33 AM on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009
FLORIDA TIMES-UNION

Taking a page from the successful 1970 campaign of his late father, Lawton "Bud" Chiles III on Thursday brought his One Million Steps for Florida's Kids awareness campaign to Jacksonville...

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E.O. Wilson And Will Wright: Ant Lovers Unite!

An Open Mic Discussion Of Life And Games

September 1, 2009
National Public Radio

Ants make some people cringe — but for E. O. Wilson and Will Wright, they provide never-ending fascination.

Biologist E. O. Wilson, professor emeritus at Harvard University, is a two-time Pulitzer-winning ant expert who helped develop theories of island biogeography, chemical ecology, and sociobiology. A leader in the modern environmental movement, Wilson has devoted his life to understanding how all forms of life are connected.

Computer game mastermind Will Wright has read every one of Wilson's books. He credits Wilson for inspiring him to develop SimAnt, one of the games he created along with The Sims — the most successful computer game in history — and more recently Spore, in which players create virtual single-cell organisms and evolve those organisms into more complex forms of life...

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Secret Recipes Revealed: Demystifying the Title I, Part A Funding Formulas

By Raegen Miller
August 17, 2009
Center for American Progress

Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act authorizes grants to help with the education of children in low-income areas, but the formulas used to determine the grants need to be improved...

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Download the executive summary (pdf)

Interactive Map: Title I Education Grants

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Summary of Early Learning Challenge Fund

National Women's Law Center

The House also expects to take up the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act which includes the new Early Learning Challenge Fund. The new Early Learning Challenge Fund would provide competitive grants to challenge states to build comprehensive, high-quality early learning systems for children up to age five...

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Laughter and learning

by Jos Houben
August 2009 issue
Ode Magazine

The upside of looking on the lighter side of life...

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COMMENTARY: The Green School Makeovers

Countless Benefits for Eco-Friendly Schools

By Kristen O’Neill
emagazine

The LEED for Schools rating system, The Green Flag Schools Program and the Alliance to Save Energy's Green Schools Program all share a common goal: to create healthy, ecologically friendly learning environments for students and teachers.

Mother Tongue Absent in Thousands of Classrooms

By Haider Rizvi
IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 16 (IPS) - Millions of children across the world fail to receive a basic education not only because they are born into poverty, but because local authorities do not allow them to read and write in their native language at school...

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Obama's Classroom Spies

By DAVID PRICE
CounterPunch
June 23, 2009

Professional associations like the American Association of University Professors, the American Psychological Association and the American Anthropological Association need to speak out in opposition of the permanent establishment of PRISP. PRISP risks further blurring already hazy borders marking proper independent academic roles, and it stands to confuse academic identities in ways that many will not even realize...

Hungry for a Better Education: Teachers, Parents Lead Hunger Strike Protesting Cuts, Layoffs at LA Schools

DemocracyNow!
June 10, 2009

Teachers, parents and community members are on a hunger strike protesting cuts and layoffs at Los Angeles schools, which have come as part of a statewide effort by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce education funding by nearly $1 billion. We speak to LA high school teacher and “Hungry for a Better Education” participant Sean Leys, now on his fifteenth day of the hunger strike.

Teaching Pioneer Deborah Meier on Obama’s Education Policy and the Future of Charter Schools

DemocracyNow.org
May 21, 2009

As part of the Obama administration’s education plan, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has urged states to consider partnerships with successful charter school operators. We speak to Deborah Meier, who has spent nearly four decades working in public education as a teacher, principal, writer and public advocate. She is considered to be the founder of the small schools movement and founded a number of public elementary and secondary schools in New York and Boston that serve predominantly low-income African American and Latino students...

Grading 529 College Savings Plans

National Public Radio

Morning Edition, May 20, 2009 · This is the season when students graduate from high school and their parents worry about how to pay for college.

Many hope to benefit from a tax-free fund designed for college savings called a 529 plan. Over the past couple of decades, Americans have put about $80 billion into these funds. But Greg Brown, who works for the independent investment research firm Morningstar, argues 529s have serious flaws.

"The problem with 529s is that they add a layer of complexity and confusion that really … doesn't need to be there," Brown tells NPR's Steve Inskeep.

The Corporatization of Public Education

Wednesday 15 April 2009
by: Andy Kroll, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Education Secretary Arne Duncan's pledge to put more big-city mayors in charge of their school districts would exclude democratic forms of school governance and let big businesses decide the fate of public schools. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's pledge to put more big-city mayors in charge of their school districts would exclude democratic forms of school governance and let big businesses decide the fate of public schools.

A Scandal More Shameful than AIG and Just as Costly for Taxpayers

by Keli Goff
Huffington Post
April 8, 2009

...• A 2008 study found that high school dropouts cost the American public more than $100 million a year.

• A 2009 study found that one high school dropout in Ohio will cost that state's taxpayers $200,000 from the time they dropout until they are 65 years of age.

• Every 29 seconds another American student becomes a dropout, meaning two (depending on how quickly you read) have dropped out since you began reading this post....