OTL Campaign Newsletter 
July 12, 2011
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National Economic & Social Rights Initiative: Damekia Morgan of the Dignity in Schools Campaign. Read more.


Alliance for Quality Education: Students First! Cuts will make kids drop out!

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UPCOMING EVENTS

July 28-31:
"Save Our Schools March & National Call to Action"

Thousands of people will gather at the White House in Washington, D.C., and at locations around the nation to express their desire to reclaim the right to determine the path of education reform in their own communities. A state-by-state list of contacts for the Save Our Schools March and related local events is available online here.

OTL HIGHLIGHTS
  • Free webinar tonight on public education and America's future
    Join civil rights leader Dr. John H. Jackson for a discussion tonight about current opportunity gaps in education and the campaign to provide an opportunity to learn for all children. Dr. Jackson, President and CEO of The Schott Foundation for Public Education, will provide an overview of the landscape and significance of public education to America's future. This free event is open to all, and will begin at 8 p.m. EST. Click here to register>


  • 2011 Opportunity to Learn Education Summit
    The 2011 OTL Summit — an exciting gathering of grassroots advocates, philanthropic partners, federal and state policymakers, youth organizers, national organizations and researchers to share critical advocacy strategies and strengthen networks to build a state and national movement to provide all students an opportunity to learn. Save the date — plan to be there!

  • Federal data shed light on national educational opportunity gap
    New federal statistics show that students across the country are not getting equitable access to a rigorous education, experienced teachers, and school counselors. "These data are incredible and revelatory," said Russlynn Ali, the U.S. Department of Education's Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. "They paint a portrait of a sad truth in American schools: Fundamental fairness hasn't reached whole groups of students." Use ProPublica's interactive online tool to learn more about your state's educational opportunity gaps. Read more>

RESOURCES
  • Alliance for Excellent Education: Getting students back on track
    With high school dropout rates on the rise — disproportionately so among poor and minority students — this report calls on federal policymakers to draw on lessons from the New York City Department of Education's Multiple Pathways to Graduation initiative. The report highlights the initiative's success in helping off-track students succeed and reach high standards by meeting their varying educational needs. Read more>

  • NEA: The federal role in transforming struggling schools
    To transform struggling schools into successful environments for teaching and learning, more emphasis must be placed on seeking partnerships among groups at the federal and local levels. This brief examines the federal policy for intervening in low-achieving schools and suggests a different approach for "turning around" struggling schools. Read more>
  • CEP: School district budget cuts ahead, new report finds
    A recent report by the Center on Education Policy finds that more school districts are predicting budget cuts compared to this time last year and say that the cuts will come at the expense of teachers and other core services. The report is based on a nationally representative survey. Read more>

IN THE NEWS
  • Message from a charter school: thrive or transfer: This story raises perhaps the most critical question in the debate about charter schools: "Do they cherry-pick students, if not by gaming the admissions process, then by counseling out children who might be more expensive or difficult to educate?" Read more>

  • In many states, shrinking education budgets means cutting instructional time: To help make ends meet, thousands of school districts are "gutting summer-school programs, cramming classes into four-day weeks or lopping days off the school year, even though virtually everyone involved in education agrees that American students need more instruction time," according to this recent article in The New York Times. Read more>

  • Give teachers what they need with creative, targeted professional development: Teachers need a greater role in determining what kind of professional development they need to build on their students' strengths. It's "wasteful and demoralizing" to spend scarce resources on professional development that is "not tailored to teacher needs and not focused on accelerated student learning," writes Yvette Jackson, CEO of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education in The Washington Post's Answer Sheet. Read more>

  • Cops: Boost early childhood education to curb crime down the line: Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a nonprofit consisting of 5,000 law enforcement agents and crime survivors — including parents of the Columbine shooting — points to research from Miami that shows early-childhood education can help reduce violent crimes. “The more we invest in childhood, the less we pay later on,” says Laura Dinehart, a professor of early childhood education at Florida International University. Read more>

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

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