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Thinking and Linking

If schooling was as important as football

Joanne Jacobs

Sep 18, 2018
1 min

If schooling was as important as football

Vesia Hawkins loves football, she writes on Volume & Light, which follows Nashville schools. This year, she’s taking her young cousin to play on the youth team coached by her husband. She asks: What would happen if parents were as engaged, aware and demanding about their children’s schooling as they are about their football prowess? Community youth football teams are teeming with parents and family members pacing sidelines and screaming for their little loved ones. They want

Joanne Jacobs

Sep 17, 2018
2 min

Black boys lack ‘a teacher who looks like me’

Boys do better with male teachers and non-white students better with a same-race teacher, studies show. Yet, 77 percent of teachers are female and 80 percent are white, reports Claire Cain Miller in the New York Times. “We find that the effect is really driven by boys,” said Seth Gershenson, an economist studying education policy at American University. “In the elementary school setting, for black children and especially disadvantaged black children, the effect of having even

Cutting suspensions doesn’t close ‘discipline gap’

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 13, 2018
2 min

Cutting suspensions doesn’t close ‘discipline gap’

California’s out-of-school suspension rate is way down, but the “discipline gap” remains, reports Mario Koran on The 74. Black students are much, much more likely to be suspended. The number of out-of-school suspensions declined by 46 percent from 2011-12 to 2016-17, Koran reports. That reflects national trends. In 2014, an Obama administration “rethink discipline” guidance pressured schools to reduce disparities in suspension rates for black and Latino students and for speci

None dare call it tracking

Joanne Jacobs

Jul 9, 2018
2 min

None dare call it tracking

Well, it looks like tracking to me. And I’m fine with it. Jonathan Plucker, a Johns Hopkins education professor, sees “a subtle shift” in the last four years from boosting minimum competency to challenging achievers. He advocates placing “high-achieving and high-ability students in advanced classrooms for their strongest subjects, but not for every subject,” writes Goldstein. The groupings should be more flexible than the rigid “tracking” of students in decades past, the advo

Charter support rebounds

Joanne Jacobs

Apr 3, 2018
1 min

Charter support rebounds

Charter support, which dropped last year, is rebounding, especially among blacks and Republicans, according to University of Southern California’s Understanding America Study (UAS), reports Education Next. Last year, Education Next‘s poll showed a sharp drop in support for charters. Could the dip be a blip?, Rick Hess and Amy Cummings asked in 2017. Apparently, so. On the 2018 survey, 47 percent of adults supported charter schools and 29 percent oppose them, with the remainin

Black boys, but not girls, earn less than whites

Joanne Jacobs

Mar 19, 2018
2 min

Black boys, but not girls, earn less than whites

“Even when children grow up next to each other with parents who earn similar incomes, black boys fare worse than white boys,” concludes a new study by Stanford, Harvard and Census Bureau researchers. However, there is no earnings gap for black girls. “Gaps persisted even when black and white boys grew up in families with the same income, similar family structures, similar education levels and even similar levels of accumulated wealth,” reports the New York Times in a story wi

Discipline reform: Did it go too far?

Joanne Jacobs

Mar 7, 2018
2 min

Discipline reform: Did it go too far?

Discipline reform may have contributed to the violence at Douglas High School, writes Erika Sanzi, who blogs on Good School Hunting, on Real Clear Education. . . . since 2013, schools have been under enormous pressure — for good reason — to lower their suspension, expulsion, and student arrest numbers. Broward County was part of the PROMISE program (Preventing Recidivism through Opportunities, Mentoring, Interventions, Supports & Education), which was intended, according to t

Lost Einsteins: Screen ’em all to close ‘gifted gap’

Joanne Jacobs

Feb 5, 2018
3 min

Lost Einsteins: Screen ’em all to close ‘gifted gap’

Screening all children for giftedness could help close the “gifted gap” and reduce inequality, suggests a Fordham report. Only 6.1 percent of students in high-poverty schools have access to advanced learning, compared to 12.4 percent of students in low-poverty schools. Photo: Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth Failing to develop the potential of capable students from low-income families means “we lose potential Einsteins,” write Amber Northern and Checker Finn i

Closing the gap — in North Dakota

Joanne Jacobs

Jan 24, 2018
1 min

Closing the gap — in North Dakota

WalletHub’s list of most and least educated states reports that North Dakota has erased the racial education gap. Some 29.4 percent of blacks 25 and older in North Dakota have a bachelor’s degree compared to 22.8 percent of white adults. 755,000 North Dakotans, less than 22,000 are black, about 2.9 percent of the population. As of 2014, 43 percent were under the age of 18. North Dakota also has the greatest college attainment gap: 22.8 percent of women 25 and older, but only

Racial quotas for special ed?

Joanne Jacobs

Dec 27, 2017
1 min

Racial quotas for special ed?

Percentage of children and youth ages 3–21 served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by race/ethnicity: 2014–15 Don’t set racial quotas for special education, writes Jerome Woehrle on Liberty Unyielding. The Education Department is soliciting public input on delaying or dumping an Obama-era regulation that threatened funding of districts that disproportionately place blacks and Latinos in special education. The rule should be repealed, writes Woehrl

New suspension policy does little in Philly

Joanne Jacobs

Dec 10, 2017
2 min

New suspension policy does little in Philly

Philadelphia’s discipline reforms, which limited suspensions, improved attendance but not achievement for previously suspended students attending schools that complied with the new rules, concludes a new study. Never-suspended students “experienced worse outcomes in the most economically and academically disadvantaged schools.” Only 18 percent of Philadelphia schools fully complied with the new policies, while 60 percent were “partial compliers,” reports Evie Blad in Educatio

All-minority charters: Is it segregation?

Joanne Jacobs

Dec 4, 2017
2 min

All-minority charters: Is it segregation?

At 25 percent of urban charter schools, 99 percent of students are non-white, reports AP. That compares to 10 percent of traditional public schools. Does it matter? Kindergartners at a New Orleans charter school. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images Some inner-city families prefer “cultural homogeneity,” AP concedes. Others simply want a safe, effective school. Test scores tend to be higher at integrated schools, reports AP. Only 20 percent of students reach proficiency at traditi

Despite huge racial gap, SF rejects KIPP

Joanne Jacobs

Nov 28, 2017
1 min

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, concludes an Innovate Public Schools analysis. Overall, San Francisco Unified outscores other urban districts because it has so many (35 percent) high-scoring Asian-American students; another 14 percent of students are white. However, the black/Latino achievement gap is huge. Percent proficient in English and math, 2016-17, San Francisco Unifie

White teachers expect less of black students

Joanne Jacobs

Oct 24, 2017
1 min

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 Education Next. When evaluating the same black student, 33 percent of black teachers expected the student to finish college, compared to 24 percent of white teachers, the study found. There was no difference in predictions for white students. Teacher expectations affect student success, conclude Seth Gershenson, a public policy professor at A

Joanne Jacobs

Sep 26, 2017
1 min

Blacks leave Minneapolis district schools

Parents cite “safety concerns” and “a belief that academics elsewhere are better,” they write. MPS “has struggled for years to close the more than 50-percentage-point gap between white and black student achievement.” By contrast, Asian students — predominantly from Cambodian and Burmese immigrant families — are the most likely to leave St. Paul schools. I’m not “fleeing” district schools, writes Marguerite Mingus. She’s choosing better options. Mingus tried MPS schools, but e

Enough with Wobegon: Racial gaps are huge

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 28, 2017
2 min

Enough with Wobegon: Racial gaps are huge

Every year, Minnesotans laud the excellent test scores for white students and ignore or excuse the dreadful scores for non-whites, writes Citizen (Chris) Stewart, who’s “tired of all this Wobegon bullshit.” The state’s top education official is Brenda Cassellius, said test scores were “frustrating,” but added, “there’s more to providing a student with a well-rounded education than can be seen in a test.” Stewart scoffs. Reading, writing, computing – not important. Look over t

We’re making progress on education

Joanne Jacobs

Aug 16, 2017
1 min

We’re making progress on education

The U.S. is making “silent progress” on education, argues Kate Walsh, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality. She cites “genuinely good news” in the Department of Education report, The Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups. Since 1992, on the fourth grade NAEP reading assessment, the white-black score gap narrowed from 32 points to 26 points. This was not due to a drop in white scores, which went up by 8 points, but results from an even

Anti-choice folks choose for their own kids

Joanne Jacobs

Jun 19, 2017
2 min

Anti-choice folks choose for their own kids

People who exercise choice in educating their own children want black parents to exercise patience, writes Sharif El-Mekki, principal of Mastery Charter School in Philadelphia. Mastery Charter School in Philadelphia is open to all students. His middle-class friends choose their children’s schools, exert pressure to get their children the best teachers and pay for “tutoring, trips, camps, and experiences that can supplement what they believe their children need,” writes El-Mek

Teachers of color aren’t magic solution

Joanne Jacobs

Jun 15, 2017
2 min

Teachers of color aren’t magic solution

Teachers of color are the latest magic bullet for our education woes, writes Alina Adams on New York School Talk. Black teachers allegedly “get” black students. Students of all races prefer teachers of color, reports NPR. Adams is raising three children with her husband, who is African-American and a teacher. Her daughter “loved having one teacher who was Black and Jewish – just like her,” Adams recalls. But “the teachers of color my children have learned from the most . . a

Boys lag in reading, writing

Joanne Jacobs

Jun 8, 2017
1 min

Boys lag in reading, writing

“Three of four African-American boys in California classrooms failed to meet reading and writing standards” on state exams, reports Matt Levin for CALmatters. More than half of black boys scored in the lowest category, “below basic.” Boys of all ethnicities and incomes did considerably worse than girls in reading and writing. Girls used to lag in math, but they’ve caught up to boys, test scores show. The gender gap is widest between black boys and black girls. “In states that

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