I’m Thinking About…

Education policy.  What is the connection between public high schools and two and four year colleges?  Whatever it is it isn’t enough.  So much of the education debate takes place around K-12 that we leave out any consideration of what our students go on to post-diploma.  The NY Times explores one side of this issue. [...]

The Fight for Civil Rights: Gay Marriage

I’m immensely saddened by today’s ruling.  I’m also incredibly proud of the citizens who peacefully exercised their right to protest, and who invoked the spirit of dissent–that truly American spirit–through civil disobedience.  May we all follow in these brave souls’ footsteps, and may all of us have the right to marry.

If You Don’t Know, Now You Know

Tomorrow, Friday April 17, 2009 is the 13th annual Day of Silence.  Day of Silence “brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools.” 
The goal of the Day of Silence is to make schools safer for all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. In a Harris Interactive study on bullying, students said [...]

This Story Isn’t Going Away

When I studied in Berlin in 2001, I spent the majority of my time in coffee shops and the Freie Universitat studying the issues surrounding Germany’s largest group of minorities: the Turks, who were invited to Germany by the German government during the post-WWII labor shortage.  
Today, while casually listening to NPR in the car, [...]

Spate of Education-related posts

The Teacher Salary Project, a group of educators and citizens committed to raising teacher salaries in order to improve the quality of education, is having an event in San Francisco on March 23, 2009 from 6:30-8:30.  The evening will include clips from the new film of the same name, based on the New York Times [...]

Required Reading

I’ve read this article about three times now.  The Marxist ideal of transformation doesn’t obsess me as much as my conclusion that the differences in “school knowledge” that Anyon describes, as dictated by social class, are true, and have become more deeply entrenched each year since she wrote this piece (in 1981).
Tomorrow my students get [...]

What’s Up With Black History Month

I’ve been thinking about BHM, and wanted to say something about it on ARL, so I did a little digging.  The first thing I came up with was Cynthia Tucker’s article that was published locally in the Chronicle on 2/9/09.  I think Tucker did a brilliant job elucidating the issues around keeping up the tradition, [...]

What I’ve been reading at nytimes.com this week

I can’t wait to read the Vena Cava blog.
I love Brussels sprouts.
The more I think about it, the more upset I am about this.
I’m so glad this is not my life.
The achievement gap is even wider between high-income high-achieving whites and high-income high-achieving blacks.
Let’s get more in-depth about how the stimulus will help schools that serve [...]

Right Now I’m Googling:

How to fight Prop 8.
Click here to sign the pledge to fight Prop 8.
“We, the undersigned, are united in our refusal to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our state’s constitution.
We pledge to repeal Prop 8 and restore marriage equality to California. “ 
Click here to learn more about CREDO Mobile, history, and how [...]

Agenda for Today

Today I’m attending a conference about Special Education.  I’ll be presenting on a disability the law (IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) as Emotional Disturbance.  
Many terms are used to describe emotional, behavioral or mental disorders. Currently, students with such disorders are categorized as having a serious emotional disturbance, which is defined under the Individuals [...]