Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning"
"Dedicated to the premise that no matter what 'experts' say, trends in Education really are fleeting; and that the ONLY goal of all school employees should be to work with parents to help their students become better people in June than they were in September."
The other day our related organization, the Network for Public Education, announced the names of 4 new members to its board. Now NPE Action is delighted to announce that three, strong pro-public advocates have joined the NPE Action Board of Directors. We are pleased to welcome Sue Legg of Florida, Dountonia Batts of Indianapolis and Dan Greenberg of Ohio.
Please read their accomplishments below:
Opinion: Looming changes won’t help Mich. schools
By Shawn K. Wightman superintendent of Marysville Public Schools
There are a number of changes coming in 2019 that are going to have major implications for Michigan’s public schools.
To be more specific, another school accountability system is going to be established by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) as a result of recent “lame duck” legislation. This system is being implemented, in part, to improve Michigan’s dismal education ranking in the country, despite strong opposition.
Michigan will receive a $5 million grant to improve preschool development programs statewide.
The Michigan Department of Education announced on Jan. 8, the $5 million-plus competitive federal grant program will help improve care, programs, and services for preschoolers in Michigan.
The Preschool Development Grant (PDG) was put in place by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Education Department.
The PDG focuses on https://www.wnem.com/news/michigan-receives-grant-to-improve-preschool-development/
After months of failed negotiations, the United Teachers of Los Angeles had scheduled a strike beginning today. They have now postponed the strike until Monday, January 14th. The problems in the district that have driven teachers to strike are complex; their situation is impossibly simple. Their pay has not risen adequately and the conditions in the city’s schools for children and for teachers are deplorable. For the NY Times, Jennifer Medina and Dana Goldstein report: “Some classes have as many as 45 students… and school nurses, art and music teachers must serve thousands of students by traveling to multiple schools.”
We are told that, with its huge economy, California is unlike the other states where teachers walked out last spring. They were Red states for the most part—exemplars of supply-side, tax cutting and promoters of marketplace choice through charter schools. Instead, we are told, California is a Blue…
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Reminding parents how many days of school their kids have missed and explaining the importance of regular attendance may be a simple, low-cost way to help curb absenteeism in elementary schools, a new study suggests.
https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/education/chronic-absenteeism-student-research/
Cigarette smoking has declined among middle and high school students, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But overall nicotine use by teens is on the rise, thanks to the prevalence of vaping. We’ve summarized some of the important scholarship on adolescent vaping, such as work examining its prevalence and perceived risks.
In his fine book on the political ramifications of the 2010 Red-wave state elections, The One Percent Solution, Gordon Lafer describes state politics marked by big money and the impact of the Tea Party: “In January 2011, legislatures across the country took office under a unique set of circumstances. In many states, new majorities rode to power on the energy of the Tea Party ‘wave’ election and the corporate-backed RedMap campaign. Critically, this new territory included a string of states, running across the upper Midwest from Pennsylvania to Wisconsin, that had traditionally constituted labor strongholds…. In addition, this was the first class of legislators elected under post-Citizens United campaign finance rules, and the sudden influence of unlimited money in politics was felt across the country… Wisconsin’s was the most notorious legislation adopted during this period… Wisconsin’s ‘Budget Repair Bill’ (Act 10) largely eliminated collective bargaining rights for the state’s…
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Network for Public Education President, Diane Ravitch, is proud to announce that four accomplished leaders and supporters of public education have been elected to three year terms on the NPE Board of Directors.
On December 18, buried in the pre-holiday news was the release of a report from Betsy DeVos’s Federal Commission on School Safety. This blog reported last week on its most troubling recommendation—the one that was immediately enacted when DeVos’s department rescinded Obama-era guidance designed to reduce racial disparities in school discipline. It is worth exploring more broadly the implications of what was in the Commission’s report.
For the Washington Post, Laura Meckler reported: “President Trump’s Federal Commission on School Safety, formed after a mass shooting at a Florida high school, recommended… that school systems consider arming personnel and advised against increasing the minimum age requirement for gun purchases.”
For Politico, Kimberly Hefling wrote: “A Trump administration school safety panel hardly touched on the role of guns in deadly school shootings in its wrap-up…. But the panel instead encouraged more coordination between schools and law enforcement that…
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"That all citizens will be given an equal start through a sound education is one of the most basic, promised rights of our democracy. Our chronic refusal as a nation to guarantee that right for all children.... is rooted in a kind of moral blindness, or at least a failure of moral imagination.... It is a failure which threatens our future as a nation of citizens called to a common purpose... tied to one another by a common bond." —Senator Paul Wellstone --- March 31, 2000
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