EdTrust’s Post

Racialized disinvestment in our public schools is part of a strategy to dismantle education as a public good. This historical and present disinvestment and privatization are fueling mass school closures across the country, which harm Black and Brown students, communities, and our democracy. New research shows the harm to students can be lifelong. As this piece explains, "[r]esearch has shown closures disproportionately affect students of color and students from low-income families, which recently prompted two civil rights groups [Advancement Project and Southern Poverty Law Center] to request guidance from the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights outlining when closures violate federal civil rights law." As the brilliant Mariame Kaba has said, "We must preserve the publicness of our schools. Do you think if public schools were presented as an option today, we would get them? Libraries? Public education, the commons, are abolitionist demands."

I'm all for emphasis on federal-state partnerships in higher education to tackle the challenges of affordability and racial equity. The recent Supreme Court rulings against race-conscious admissions underscore the urgency for comprehensive solutions. Advocating for these partnerships paves the way for a brighter and more inclusive future in academia. #RacialEquity #Partnership #Policy

🔍 Shedding light on educational disparities in the Twin Cities region: a new study by researchers at the University of Minnesota Law School's Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity reveals concerning trends. High schools in the area are heavily segregated along racial and economic lines, impacting college enrollment rates. Whiter, wealthier schools boast significantly higher rates compared to those serving more low-income families and students of color. Check out the insightful findings in Madison McVan's article. https://lnkd.in/gyw8-CbV #HopeUnitedCDC #EducationEquality #TwinCitiesSchools

Networks of opportunities is critical to success.

The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA and the National Center for Youth Law just released a new report that Ramon Flores and I co-authored on the impact of punitive out of school suspensions on students in California, focused on the harm to the educational opportunities of homeless and foster youth of color. https://lnkd.in/gW8Pi_te According to our new research, the average rate for the state is 10 days lost per 100 students enrolled. But Black foster youth in CA lost 121 days of instruction per 100 enrolled. More than 12 times higher. The information about the loss of instructional time is highly relevant to understanding the racially disparate harm from punitive responses. Please read the report, pass it on to others and encourage educators to end the use of punitive suspensions. There are many more effective responses, and ways to train teachers and to support educators and students that deserve a much greater investment. Out of school suspensions are really non-interventions and have no research support. It's absurd to think that sending foster youth and homeless youth home is an educationally sound approach. So why do we send them home so much more than any other students?

The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's Racial Imbalance Advisory Council published a new report finding over 225,000 students in segregated schools. "Since 1965, Massachusetts school districts have been required under state law to eliminate and prevent racial imbalances in its schools, especially when drawing or altering geographic boundaries around schools that determine which students can attend, establishing grade levels, and selecting new school sites. But a series of court rulings and legal challenges nationwide in the 1990s and early 2000s created a murky legal landscape that left many school officials wondering whether they could use race as a factor at all in school assignments, and many, including Boston, abandoned them." Read the full article in the Boston Globe: https://lnkd.in/dbxdv8AZ

"There are all kinds of ways schools pre-ordain inequitable outcomes. Treating certain students as “less than” — whether because of state laws, unconscious or conscious bias, a focus on certain extracurricular activities, or just fear of certain wealthy and powerful parents — creates inequities that last a lifetime. School rules that are built for one social group and are thus used against others, begin the school-to-prison pipeline. Homework, obviously, with its middle-class expectations of home life and parental education, crashes many kids. "And right there, with all those factors, are the assumptions made about background — or prior — knowledge." #education #leadership #schools #equityineducation #opportunity https://lnkd.in/gEJjshFV

Open Enrollment is a Civil Rights issue. Available To All President Tim DeRoche explains in a new essay for Education Reform Now. If we are going to end educational redlining, we must turn to TRUE Open Enrollment. Tim argues for two common-sense reforms that will reduce the importance of geography in school assignment and open up opportunities for low-income kids: #1: MAKE ROOM: States should require any public elementary school that has selective admissions (meaning it turns away some prospective students because it is “full”) to hold back or reserve at least 10-15% of its seats for children who live outside of the zone. #2: END EDUCATIONAL GERRYMANDERING: States can adopt laws creating student-based zones, rather than school-based zones. A child would be guaranteed an equal opportunity at enrollment at any public elementary school within a certain radius of their home, perhaps five miles. https://hubs.la/Q0257kft0

Why is it do you think that every liberal solution to a societal problem seems designed to make it worse? Here in deep blue Washington, DC where the public schools have been failing students for decades, news comes that amidst widespread post-pandemic truancy will be met by a measure to decriminalize it. In DC under current law, students who are between the ages of 14 and 17 and accumulate more than 15 unexcused absences from school are supposed to be sent to court social services for potential legal action. But, the DC AG's office has declined to prosecute these cases. So, essentially as usual in DC the justice system is a revolving door. Perhaps in the face of the AG essentially punting their responsibility, the DC City Council has decided to refer these chronic truants to Human Services to see if social workers can engage with students in a way to get them back in class. You will pardon me if I am dubious. The Washington Post reports that the truancy rate in DC is an astonishing 42%. Perhaps more astonishing is that the graduation rate for High School students is 76%, leading one to wonder how students who don't attend classes can learn enough to graduate. But, the Mayor and City Council are very proud of the DC High School graduate rate, and so principals and teachers are urged to not let truancy get in the way of progress. And there you have it, when a liberal sees a problem that needs to be addressed, like too many students being referred to court for truancy, just stop sending them to court. Problem solved.

It will take a village if we want systems change for student parents! Nia Davis Sigona, Esq. describes this in her latest blog post with the New America – Education Policy Program. "Creating policy change to support student parent success is inherently collective and collaborative work. Through this lens, the communities serving student parents connect, the work intersects, and we impact student parents and each other in a dynamic ecosystem of policy, practice, and experience." https://lnkd.in/e-B5iGhc