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OTL
HIGHLIGHTS |
Read
- and comment on - these CNN columns by OTL allies!
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EDUCATION
FOR ALL IS A "MORAL IMPERATIVE"
Providing every child with a
fair and substantive opportunity to learn is
nothing less than a moral imperative, writes Rev.
Jesse Jackson in a must-read column for CNN. As
parent and student organizers across the country
know all too well, today's education policies,
which push competition and privatization, are not
sufficient for "addressing the structural
inequities that make separate and unequal
education a persistent fact of life in America
today." Read
more>
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NYC
STUDENTS RALLY FOR DISCIPLINE REFORM
Over 100 student advocates from
groups like the Dignity in Schools Campaign, D.R.U.M.,
Make the Road New York, and the Urban Youth Collaborative
rallied last week at a public hearing held by the NYC
Department of Education. The DOE announced a new draft of
the Discipline Code that limits the minor infractions for
which students can be suspended. Students argued that the
reforms must go further to stop the criminalization of
youth and keep students in school. Read
more>
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HOW
TO STOP THE WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION
A rock star panel at Netroots Nation, including education
historian Diane Ravitch, John H. Jackson, President and CEO
of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, and Ken
Bernstein, a long-time teacher and advocate, tackled the
future of public education, the importance of community
organizing and the path towards systemic education reform to
provide every child with an opportunity to learn. Read
more>
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THE
CRISIS FACING WISCONSIN'S STUDENTS
Wisconsin's school funding system is
"too complicated, too riddled with holes and too wrapped
up in politics to do its job," writes Thomas Beebe,
Project Manager for Opportunity to Learn - Wisconsin. Two
important steps will go a long way towards reforming the
state's broken funding system, providing students with the
resources they need, and strengthening the state's economy
and society. Read
more>
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AN
END TO HARSH DISCIPLINE IN JACKSON, MS
Following a lawsuit settlement
reached between Southern Poverty Law Center and the
Jackson, MS public school district, students will no
longer be subjected to a brutal discipline policy that
included handcuffing students to railings and poles for
hours on end as punishment for offenses as minor as dress
code violations. Read
more>
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YOUTH
VOICE: INEQUITIES IN MY SCHOOL
Andrea
Lopez, a confident, studious 17-year-old high school
student in California, sat down in an SAT prep class only
to realize how underprepared she felt with the material
compared to the wealthier, white students in the class. In
a powerful column for LA
Youth that has been picked up in newspapers and
blogs across the Web, Andrea writes about how our nation's
education system is fraught with inequities that put poor
students and students of color at an unfair disadvantage.
Read
more>
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RESOURCES |
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CHRONIC
ABSENTEEISM HURTS ACHIEVEMENT
Roughly 1 in every 10 U.S. students are chronically absent
from the classroom, meaning they miss 10 percent or more of
the school year. This chronic absenteeism increases
achievement gaps at the elementary, middle, and high school
levels, particularly for low-income students. This report,
from the Everyone Graduates Center, identifies the causes of
students' long term absence from the classroom (including
illness, housing instability, and involvement in the
juvenile justice system) and details the dire consequences.
Read
more>
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IN
THE NEWS |
- PA
Parents Sue to Stop School Closure: A group of
parents in Pennsylvania filed a federal lawsuit to stop
the planned closure of a local school. The parents
criticize the school district for not first trying to
remedy underlying problems, such as putting
inexperienced teachers in low-income classrooms, before
moving to privatize the public school system. Read
more>
- NYC
Budget Cuts Create After-School Crisis: As
education budgets are slashed, after-school programs are
cut. In NYC, those programs have provided vital services
for students, but now communities and the city will lose
out on those benefits as the programs are shut down. Read
more>
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