OTL Campaign Newsletter 
August 22, 2012
SUBSCRIBE

Click here to subscribe to the OTL Campaign e-newsletter.

cornerFEATURED VIDEO

Opertunity Gap in NYC Schools

  Opportunity Gap Denies Gifted Children Fair Chance at Admission to NYC's Elite Public High Schools

SIGN THE MORATORIUM PLEDGE

Solutions Not Suspensions

Solutions Not Suspensions is calling for a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions and the implementation of positive discipline alternatives in schools across the country.

Add your voice to the call!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Ed Voters PA Advocate Summit

Want to learn about education policy in PA and how to organize in your local community?
Join Education Voters PA on Sept. 22!

Click here to register!


Jonathan Kozol Speaking Events
Acclaimed education author Jonathan Kozol will be speaking at events across the country in the coming months to promote his new book, Fire in the Ashes.

Click here to find an event near you!

GET INVOLVED

Connect with advocates for quality public education across the country.

Send us success stories, information to share, grassroots mobilizing stories, policy ideas and other news.

Forward this newsletter to your networks and urge them to subscribe.


OTL HIGHLIGHTS

Solutions Not Suspensions
Let's End Out-of-School Suspensions!
We're proud to announce the OTL Campaign is joining forces with the Dignity in Schools Campaign to launch Solutions Not Suspensions, a call for a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions. Every year, 3.3 million students in the U.S. are suspended from school, causing them to miss critical learning time and pushing them out of school, often for minor misbehavior. Federal data shows that students of color and students with disabilities are disproportionately suspended and subjected to harsher punishments. At the Solutions Not Suspensions launch in Los Angeles, advocates called on states and districts to implement positive discipline alternatives that keep students in the classroom rather sending them down the school-to-prison pipeline. Learn more and join the call to stop suspensions!

Girls Inc. NYC
"Yes She Can!" Girls Education Summit Recap
On Aug. 17th over 200 young women gathered in Brooklyn for the “Yes She Can! Girls Take Back Their Education” summit hosted by the Brooklyn Girls Collaborative. Nakisha Lewis, Program Manager at the Schott Foundation for Public Education, recaps the event, which included speeches from young female activists and a host of workshops focused on empowering young women to use their voices in shaping their education. Read more>

Ending the Education Apocalypse
Project 2012: Ending the Education Apocalypse
Budget cuts and a push for privatization are threatening the mere existence of the Philadelphia's public schools. Let the students from Youth United for Change, PhillyCAM and Art Factory fill you in. The groups produced a short "docu-music video" chronicling the effects of school closures on students, teachers and communities. "Project 2012: Ending the Education Apocalypse" is hands down one of the best pieces of student activism you'll see! Read more>

OTL - Wisconsin
A Tale of Two Districts: A Teacher Reflects
Susan Howe, a lifelong teacher in Wisconsin's public schools, has witnessed firsthand the heartbreaking disparities in access to educational resources and opportunities in her state. On the OTL blog, Howe tells the touching stories of two new young teachers, her niece and her son, and how the disparities between their school districts affected the opportunities they were able to offer their students. Read more>

Gov. Patrick
MA Won't Deny Suspended Students Ed Resources
Thanks to the advocacy of students, parents and communities across Massachusetts, a new law signed by Gov. Deval Patrick will give suspended or expelled students access to educational resources like alternative schools, tutoring or online learning programs. It will also require school districts to report data on suspensions and expulsions to the state in order to better identify disparities in which students are being pushed out of school and denied the resources and opportunities they need to learn. Read more>

Ending the Education Apocalypse
Jailing Students for Wearing the Wrong Clothes?
What in the name of reasonable policy solutions is wrong with the school officials, police departments, and juvenile justice systems operating a school-to-prison pipeline in east Mississippi? In a letter to state and local officials in Lauderdale County and the city of Meridian, the U.S. Department of Justice threatened officials with legal action after an investigation of the local school discipline policies revealed egregious violations of students' rights. Read more>

RESOURCES

A Model Code
A Model Code on Education and Dignity: Presenting a Human Rights Framework for Schools
How do we reform school discipline policies to ensure we keep children in the classroom rather than pushing them out of school? This model school discipline code from the Dignity in Schools Campaign provides valuable recommendations for challenging unjust and discriminatory discipline policies in your district and effecting change in your community and your state. Let's put an end to out-of-school suspensions and give every student access to a fair and substantive opportunity to learn!. Read more>

IN THE NEWS
  • Anthony Cody Engages the Gates Foundation: In a wonderful five-part series, teacher and Education Week blogger Anthony Cody engages the Gates Foundation for a dialogue on education reform. Part Three, which tackles the effects of poverty on education, is not to be missed. Read more>

  • Privatization As a Solution? Wong, Try Again: In her annual Message on Public Education, Jan Resseger, Minister for Public Education and Witness at the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries, denounces the privatization of public education as the abdication of society's responsibility to provide all children with a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. Read more>

Please forward this newsletter and tell others to sign up for updates.

National Opportunity to Learn Campaign
675 Massachusetts Avenue, 8th Floor | Cambridge, MA 02139
www.otlcampaign.org | [email protected] | 617-876-7700

Facebook Twitter YouTube blog