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For excellence and equity in public schools
News, Research, Events
Explore, Discover, Learn, Discuss
Click
here to view their
"March For Our Lives" Rally
Parkland Students to Tour the Country to Encourage Young People to Vote. . .
Click
here
to learn more.
March For Our lIves Rally & Holding Politicians Accountable
"Parkland students propose changes to gun policies. They believe federal and state governments must put these changes in place to ensure that mass shootings and gun violence cease to be a staple of American culture. . .
The Town Hall Project
Click
here
to learn more.
Students plan to walk out of schools to protest gun laws,
to learn more click
here.
To read the "Everytown.org" Action Plan to: "Throw Out" Lawmakers Beholden to the Gun Lobby
click
here.
What Do you know abou school safety protocols?
No Blame for Newtown on School Massacre, Judge Says. . .
“This ruling (which every parent should read) should serve as NOTICE to all parents of young boys and girls: Our children are not safe in public schools,” Papcsy said in a statement (parentheses in original). Papcsy said Wilson’s decision ultimately holds that schools “can never be held accountable if they failed to implement protocols
intended to keep our children and teachers safe in their public schools.”
By ADAM KLASFELD
“This ruling (which every parent should read) should serve as NOTICE to all parents of young boys and girls: Our children are not safe in public schools,” Papcsy said in a statement (parentheses in original). Papcsy said Wilson’s decision ultimately holds that schools “can never be held accountable if they failed to implement protocols
intended to keep our children and teachers safe in their public schools.”
By ADAM KLASFELD
To Listen to Secretary DeVos on the Parkland shootings, etc.
To read the blog: School Massacres, Gun Control & Politicians,
click
here
.
What do you know about the 2018 Comprehensive School Safety Initiative?
Solicitation Notice - The National Institute of Justice has canceled both the Comprehensive School Safety Initiative and Research and Evaluation of Technologies to Improve School Safety solicitations. With the enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, the funding planned for these solicitations is no longer available for research and evaluation. Instead, it will be used for other purposes under the Stop School Violence Act of 2018.
What is the Stop School Violence Act of 2018?
What do you know about funding for safe schools?
Click
here for more information.
_______________________________________________________________________
More News
Across the Nation
(& World)
Notes From the Field: If You Want Great Schools, First Work With Parents to Create ‘Actionable Demand’
For more info on this article, click
here.
Your state department of education will choose your statewide family engagement center but do they have the capacity to choose a center without widespread public input?
(Note: There is still "a lack of information and research about how state
education agencies can effectively design, support, and effect district and school improvement
efforts, etc. and how these agencies can differentiate and scale up improvement efforts."
education agencies can effectively design, support, and effect district and school improvement
efforts, etc. and how these agencies can differentiate and scale up improvement efforts."
For instance, "
76 percent of states reported significant gaps in expertise for supporting school
turnarounds in 2012, and that number increased to 80 percent in 2013.
turnarounds in 2012, and that number increased to 80 percent in 2013.
Today, many states have weak school turnaround goals and are still not in a position to choose school reform efforts without the broad involvement of communities .
(Please review your state accountability plan for more info.)
These same facts apply to Secretary DeVos who has very little experience in governance.
As a result, parents must make demands on school officials for schools to improve (as many experts on this topic have noted such as President Obama, Arne Duncan and Andrew Cuomo).
This goal is particularly important under the Trump Administration.
But how will this work if clientelism is a part of this equation?
Click
here to learn more.
For waived SAT fees, click
here.
To learn why 47% of students are not prepared for college, click
here.
What does it take to secure our U.S. Democracy?
Click
here to learn more.
For Trump's State of the Union address
and Joe Kennedy's response to it, click
here
.
For highlights of the DC Women's March,
click
here
.
News about the "Direct Student Services Program of Title One"
Click
here to learn more. . . and read CEP's "
Direct Student Services: A Special Report, scroll down to the
second download on their list.
Have you contacted your elected officials about the upcoming gun law
vote?
Click
here (Sandy Hook's Promise) and
here (Giffords Courage)
to learn more.
Have You Contacted Your Elected Officials About the Tax Bill? If not, click
here
or click
here
,
here,
here
,
here
,
here,
here,
here,
here
,
here
,
here,
and
here to learn what other organizatons are doing across the nation to oppose this bill.
5
3% of white women voted for Trump, a known misogynist and, to many,
racist . What should parents do
when their children say their teachers promote the POTUS and his biased if not racist ideas
? Clearly, Trump's policy preferences,
etc
. have made him into the least popular POTUS in history (for reasons that require mandatory teachable moments for children). This fact alone means that the majority of Americans do not see him as the chief U.S. standard bearer or role model for children. Michelle Obama's words of wisdom, therefore, still stand: when (he) "they go low we go high" --- a necessary first step that should be easy to determine --- even if it requires all voters to tell their politicians to: "
hold the line
" on behalf of fairness and decency.
(Note "
Clinton carried white, college-educated women: but just barely: 51% to 45% --- and
34% of white women without a college degree."
which include those that address unfair disciplinary practices against ---let's say a five year old...
Them for College. . . Click
here for more info.
States are setting their college ready standards
why only 3 states expect their 8th graders to be
To read: How States Are "Getting Honest" About How
Few Kids Are On Track For College,
Click
here to learn about the NAEP 12th grade results.
Are parents being misled about test results?
Eye opening stats about high school and
Here is the
update on the
Connecticut school funding case,
(Also refer to our page on
school finance systems
or
here and
here. Please take the time to read
this case in its entirety, especially since it is being
appealed by the state of Connecticut.
Judge Moukawsher's
ruling states: "
Connecticut is defaulting on its constitutional duty to fairly educate its poorest children." (For example, during the budget crisis, school leaders, essentially, robbed millions of dollars from poor schools and gave the funds to rich schools. . .) Overall, he ordered the state to come up with a new funding formula, devise clear standards for both the elementary and high school levels, --- including developing a graduation test --- overhaul its system of evaluating teachers, principals & superintendents and change the irrational way the state funds special education services."
Bill and Melinda Gates
on the political debate over the
Common Core standards
Every Student Succeeds Act
Click here
and
here to learn more about ESSA.
President Obama signing the
Every Student Succeeds Act.
Related Materials
To build your knowledge base,
please refer to the following articles listed below
from a wide range of experts to explore current topics in the news:
Arne Duncan Webinar on:
Race & Class in the American Education System
US educators lead the world in overestimating student poverty, which may affect educational mobility
Note: Please stop quoting the Hart and Risley study. . . Click
here to leary why:
"There are many problems with the Hart and Risley study (Dudley-Marlin & Lucas, 2009; Michaels, 2013; Miller & Sperry, 2012). Among the criticisms are the reduction of language to vocabulary knowledge, the extrapolation from six families in one state to all poor children, whatever their familial, cultural, linguistic, and community circumstances, and the lack of a correlation between children’s vocabulary as measured at age 3 and their school performance in third grade (noted by Hart & Risley [1995] themselves, on p. 161). Nonetheless, it is widely assumed that this study illuminates the “deficiencies” of poor children and that these account for school difficulties. . ."