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OTL
HIGHLIGHTS |
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Racial
Justice Webinar - Recap, Resources & Video!
Thanks to all those who joined us for an
exciting webinar last week with Terry Keleher and Jermaine
Toney from the Applied Research Center! In case you
couldn't make it, here's a recap of what we discussed,
tools for you to use in your advocacy and organizing work,
and a video of the webinar to share! Not to be missed is
the Racial Equity Impact Assessment tool (see below in
Resources) that helps organizers, advocates and
policymakers identify potential disparities
caused by a proposed policy. Read
more> |
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We
Need Equity for Students & Supports for Teachers
Following the release of the Equity and
Excellence Commission's seminal report on the lack of
equity and opportunity in our schools, OTL ally Linda
Darling-Hammond and Congressman Michael Honda (CA)
published a column in the Washington Post echoing
the report's call for policies that increase access to key
opportunities and resources for every child and provide
supports for recruiting, training and retaining high
quality teachers. Read
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Is
High-Stakes Testing (Texas) Toast?
By Jeff Bryant, Education
Opportunity Network
What happened last week in the Texas capital of Austin
revealed a groundswell of resistance, from multiple
political factions, against what has been heretofore
defined as “education reform,” namely
high-stakes testing and accountability systems. A rally
brought thousands of people into the streets to hear
education historian Diane Ravitch declare that Texas, the
place where reform “madness” started, would be
where “the vampire gets … a stake in its
heart.” Read
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Confronting
the Opportunity Gap in Education
Inequities between wealthy and
low-income districts in New York has resulted in a gaping
$8,601 per pupil spending gap. "Confronting the
Opportunity Gap," a new report from the Alliance for
Quality Education and the Public Policy and Education
Fund, lays out how New York is a leader in educational
inequity and how the state could go about reforming its
education system to ensure access and opportunity for each
and every student. Read
more> |
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The
Free Market Fairy vs. Supports-Based Reforms
By Steve Strieker,
Wisconsin Teacher
Tying school funding to performance and making repeated
allusions to the mythical Free Market Fairy don't
constitute systemic, supports-based reform. That's a
nonsensical proposal that presumes that staff in
high-needs schools are failing because educators lack the
motivation or know-how to help students succeed. Let's
stop fooling ourselves and start providing students,
teachers and schools with the resources and opportunities
they need to succeed. Read
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"We
Cannot Afford to Spend a Cent Less"
Megan Allen is a 5th grade teacher and
the 2010 Florida Teacher of the Year. On February 21st,
she testified before the U.S. House of Representatives
Democratic Steering and Policy Committee and spoke
passionately about the life-changing supports schools and
teachers should be able to offer struggling students and
about the need to safeguard those supports from budget
cuts and the impact of the Sequester. Read
more> |
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AR
OTL Holds Education Advocacy Day in Little Rock
On February 20th, over 200 members of
the Arkansas OTL Campaign made their way to Little Rock
for an Education Advocacy Day! Their goal: show their
support for education reforms that provide every student
with a fair and substantive opportunity to learn and
highlight the progress the state has made in the past
decade by implementing sound, research-based policies. Read
more> |
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Children's
Budget Maps Investments in Kids
The Massachusetts Budget and
Policy Center's new Children's Budget is an expansive
database of government services and programs for children
and their families that impact their access to high
quality educational opportunities. Covering everything
from early childhood education, fair funding, expanded
learning time, healthcare, affordable housing and juvenile
justice, this database is a powerful tool worth
replicating in other states, and it drives home the need
for supports-based, not standards-based, education reform.
Read
more> |
Resources |
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Racial
Equity Impact Assessments
Racial Equity Impact Assessments
(REIAs) are a systematic examination of how different
racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a
proposed action or decision. REIAs are a vital tool for
preventing institutional racism and for identifying new
options to remedy long-standing inequities. Communities
across the country from Seattle to St. Paul to Connecticut
have begun to use REIAs in their policymaking. Learn how
you can implement them in your own community with this
helpful tool from the Applied Research Center! Read
more> |
IN
THE NEWS |
- Parents
Take Officials to Court for Lack of Transparency:
Several New York City public school parents represented
by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity filed a lawsuit
against the city Department of Education for failing to
provide local communities with a chance to give their
input on key funding and spending proposals as required
by the state's Contract for Excellence Law. Read
more>
- "Equal
Opportunity" Is a National Myth: In a powerful New
York Times column, economist Joseph Stiglitz
writes that today "the most important reason for lack of
equality of opportunity is education: both is quantity
and quality." In order to make good on our national
promise of opportunity for all, we need more and better
early care and education, investments in wraparound
academic, social and health supports for low-income and
struggling students and increased access to higher
education. Read
more>
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