Lift Us Up: Meet the Activists on the Front Lines of the Battle for Educational Justice in America

Democracy Now! recently looked at the criminalization of Black and brown students that has led to what is known as the school-to-prison pipeline.
Democracy Now! recently looked at the criminalization of Black and brown students that has led to what is known as the school-to-prison pipeline.
I grew up near Cincinnati and had been surprised to learn that it is one of the nation’s leaders in adopting whole-child practices. Schott has been examining the adoption of whole-child supports in schools and communities across the country as part of our newly launched Healthy Living and Learning Initiative. I was recently speaking about Schott’s vision and goals for this work with a small group of sector leaders, and was invited by Cincinnati philanthropist, Lee Carter, to come see the work unfolding in Cincinnati.
Hair is an integral part of black cultural expression, but it has little to do with educational development, says John H. Jackson, president and CEO of the Schott Foundation. His response, highlighted in recent media reports, was a sharp dressing-down of a charter school in Malden, Mass., that disciplined African American girls who wore braided hair extensions to school.
Below are infographics Schott developed with Racial Justice NOW! in Ohio. Click here to learn more about how RJN is fighting the school-to-prison pipeline in their state.
Below are infographics Schott developed with Racial Justice NOW! in Ohio. Click here to learn more about how RJN is fighting the school-to-prison pipeline in the Buckeye state!
This year, The U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights released data collected from public schools in the 2013-2014 school year, which aimed to highlight equity and opportunity gaps in our nation’s public schools. One statistic further set in stone what too many parents and students already know through experience: black public preschool children are suspended at higher rates than whites.
As part of the Schott Foundation’s Grassroots Education Series, we moderated a webinar on July 7, featuring our grantee partner Dignity in Schools Campaign, a national network that challenges the systemic problem of pushout in our nation's schools and works to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.
The key to ensuring access to educational opportunity for each and every child is to build a strong public school at the heart of every community.
Across the nation, advocates are beginning to use the idea of a "community school" as a model for improving their local education systems. At the Community Schools National Forum in Cincinnati last week, top educators from the US and abroad learned about this powerful new model and how it could be scaled up nationally.
The 2013 KIDS COUNT Data Book provides a detailed picture of how children are faring in the United States. In addition to ranking states on overall child well-being, the Data Book ranks states in four domains: Economic Well-Being, Education, Health, and Family and Community.