Ces Butler Gifts $1 Million in Scholarships for Oakland Youth
OAKLAND POST — Oakland businessman and community leader, Cestra “Ces” Butner, pledged another $500,000 to East Bay College Fund in front of 600 scholars, mentors, and volunteers during the organization’s 2018 Winter Retreat at Oakland Technical High School on January 4th.
read moreCreating Equality Through Education
THE SEATTLE MEDIUM — On my mousepad is a picture of African American students at work in a segregated classroom in 1945. Above that picture is the word OPPORTUNITY. Below, it reads, “Being able to see past traditional barriers and having an intense belief in your ideas and abilities will help you take advantage of any opportunity.”
read moreLong-Term Benefits of Preschool: For Real or Fadeout?
In 2001, Oklahoma became one of the nation’s first states to implement a universal pre-K program. Since then, a large and growing body of evidence has told us that early childhood education programs improve school readiness and reduce achievement…
read moreMany State ESSA Plans Are ‘Uncreative, Unambitious,’ Analysis Finds
The two-year-old Every Student Succeeds Act was supposed to free states up to go off in bold, new directions on K-12 policy. So did state plans, all of which have been turned into the U.S. Department of Education, live up to that promise?
read moreInside the ESSA Plans: What Are States Doing About Goals and Timelines?
EDUCATION WEEK — This week, Education Week is bringing its trademark analysis to the remaining state plans for fulfilling requirements of the Every Student Succeeds law. On Monday, we had a look at the states’ proposed “school quality” indicators, the required but nonacademic portion of each state’s plan to judge schools. Today, we’re going to take a look at states’ goals for raising student achievement and their timelines for doing so in the plans awaiting federal approval.
read moreDemocrats Ask Betsy DeVos to Act Against ‘Hateful Bullying’ in Schools
In a Wednesday letter, nine senators, including Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate education committee, asked the secretary what resources the U.S. Department of Education was providing schools in order to counter “the recent increase in hateful and discriminatory speech and conduct.”
read moreEd. Dept. Finds Texas Suppressed Enrollment of Special Education Students
Disability advocates hailed the U.S. Department of Education’s finding that Texas for years put roadblocks in the path of children who potentially qualified for special education—a clear violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
read moreBarbershop Books hopes to bring reading to more children
More than 85 percent of black male fourth-graders in the United States are not proficient in reading, according to the 2013 U.S. Department of Education Nation’s Report Card. A program recently instituted by the DeKalb County Public Library (DCPL) will attempt improve that number by bringing books into the barbershop.
read moreRev. Dr. DeForest B. Soaries keynote speaker at MLK Day event
NORTH DALLAS GAZETTE — While the nation remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, nearly 50 years after his assassination, former Civil Rights Activist Rev. Dr. DeForest B. Soaries, Jr. will close out the Urban Specialists MLK Day “Course Correction Conversation” event in Dallas by calling for a new leadership that unifies our nation one neighborhood at a time.
read more55 years later, much work is needed to fulfill Dr. King’s dream in Minnesota
MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech at a time where the words he spoke were radical, important, and needing to be both heard and said. Fifty-five years later, we still have so much farther to go.
read moreIndiana Department of Education Releases 2017 Graduation Rates
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Department of Education today released the 2017 state graduation rate. In 2017, Indiana’s waiver graduation rate across the state was 87.19 percent, and the non-waiver rate was 80.10 percent. In 2016, the waiver graduation rate was 89.07 percent with a non-waiver graduation rate of 82.36 percent. Since 2006, Indiana has increased its graduation rate by nearly 10 percentage points.
read moreWe must grasp the fierce urgency of now
MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., quote from his “I Have a Dream” speech, August 28, 1963.
read moreEach generation is tasked with moving human history forward
MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetrates it. He who accepts evil without protesting it is really cooperating with it.” —Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
read moreGreen Bay Packer, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix Unveils First HERO Headquarters
MILWAUKEE COURIER — On Tuesday morning, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix arrived at Benjamin Franklin Elementary to launch his foundation’s first ever HERO Headquarters. He was welcomed by students and teachers alike with cheers, excitement and, above all, a sense of appreciation.
read moreRex grants $1 million to 63 New Orleans schools, educational groups
The Rex organization, which is best known for tossing beads, go-cups and doubloons as it parades on Mardi Gras, gave out much more valuable prizes on Saturday (Jan. 13) — grants totaling $1 million to 63 local education-related organizations.
read moreA Day Off, But a Day to Remember: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2018
MILWAUKEE COURIER — When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott, he was not hoping to win a Nobel Peace Prize. When his family was in danger and their house was bombarded with bottles and flames, having a street named after him wasn’t even a thought.
read more5 Reasons Why Every Policymaker Should Fight To Save Title IIA – Learning Forward’s PD Watch – Education Week Teacher
Their point of view is grounded in the U.S. Constitution, which places control over education firmly in the hands of states. It also finds expression in the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reversed what many saw as the No Child Left Behind Act’s efforts to assert federal control over everything in K-12 education, from school accountability measures to definitions of highly qualified teachers.
read morePennsylvania adopts computer science ed standards
PENNSYLVANIA — After a year of debate, Pennsylvania’s State Board of Education has approved a resolution to offer computer science education to all public school students in the commonwealth by endorsing Computer Science Teacher Association K-12 Standards.
read moreHow Do ESSA Plans Stack Up on Using Evidence in School Improvement?
The Every Student Succeeds Act allows states and districts to come up with their own interventions for struggling schools, with the caveat that improvement strategies have to some sort of evidence to back them up.
read moreStudy: Positive feelings about Blackness improve academics for Black girls
DEFENDER NEWS NETWORK — An article in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education focuses on a new study from Sheretta Butler-Barnes, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, which finds that young black women with “strong racial identity” are more likely to be academically engaged, curious and persistent.
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