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Closing the gap in Chicago
Two Chicago charter schools are closing the achievement gap for low-income, black children, according to a new book, The Ambitious...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 27, 20181 min read
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Despite legal fights, charters thrive in Washington state
Operating under a “cloud of legal uncertainty” and often housed in portables, Washington state’s charter schools are attracting students,...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 21, 20181 min read
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Duluth kids won’t read uncomfortable books
To protect students from racial slurs that might make them feel uncomfortable and “marginalized,” Duluth public schools will drop To Kill...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 9, 20181 min read
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Teaching slavery
To illustrate the horrors of slave ships, a middle-school teacher told three black students to lie on the floor and stepped on a girl’s...

Joanne Jacobs
Feb 8, 20182 min read
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To get to equity, teach ’em to read
Kate Walsh of the National Council on Teacher Quality is tired of apologizing for her “narrow-minded” focus on academic goals as the way...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 23, 20181 min read
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Integration doesn’t mean equality
School integration is a mirage, writes RiShawn Biddle of Dropout Nation. Cambridge,Massachusetts is a “leader in school...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 26, 20171 min read
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Open doors to accelerated classes
Open the doors to advanced classes to a wide range of students, argues AP social studies teacher Nate Bowling on EdWeek...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 13, 20172 min read
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New suspension policy does little in Philly
Philadelphia’s discipline reforms, which limited suspensions, improved attendance but not achievement for previously suspended students...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 10, 20172 min read
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Despite huge racial gap, SF rejects KIPP
Progressive San Francisco is one of the worst districts in the state when it comes to educating low-income black and Latino students,...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 28, 20171 min read
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Soft discipline is bigotry of low expectations
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appears to be gearing up to rescind Obama-era discipline policies. A 2014 “Dear Colleague” letter warned...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 28, 20172 min read
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Fear of tracking undercuts apprenticeship push
America’s history of tracking could doom proposals for youth apprenticeships, writes New America’s Abigail Swisher. Would a robust system...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 27, 20171 min read
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Why I’m not involved in my kid’s school
Jung-ah Choi, a “college faculty member, teaching and writing about social justice, race, and education,” isn’t involved in her son’s...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 13, 20172 min read
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Teaching ‘social justice’ — or propaganda?
St. Louis teachers are turning their classrooms into “hubs of social justice,” reports Kristen Taketa for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 7, 20172 min read
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White teachers expect less of black students
White teachers’ low expectations for their black students could become “self-fulfilling prophecies,” concludes an analysis published in...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 24, 20171 min read
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Prof: Math ‘operates as Whiteness’
A free online class on integrating social justice into high school math has been revised to focus on “social issues,” reports Toni...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 24, 20172 min read
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Biloxi pulls ‘Mockingbird’ for use of ‘n-word’
Biloxi (MS) eighth-graders won’t read To Kill a Mockingbird because someone complained, said Kenny Holloway, vice president of the school...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 15, 20171 min read
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Needed: black male teachers
“Low-income black students who have just one black teacher in grades 3-5 are more likely to graduate and consider college,” a recent...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 11, 20171 min read
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Scores slip after ‘equity’ focus
“Racial equity” became the priority in Edina Public Schools (EPS), an affluent Minneapolis suburb, in 2013. Test scores are falling,...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 9, 20172 min read
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Seuss museum will remove ‘racist’ mural
replace a mural, taken from And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, because three children’s authors complained about the...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 7, 20171 min read
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Is The Cat in the Hat racist?
Is The Cat in the Hat Racist? asks Stephen Sawchuk in Education Week. In honor of Read Across America Day, which is celebrated on the...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 7, 20172 min read
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