Is there empirical research demonstrating the efficacy of equity audits? This question was posed to me a couple of months ago and being a bit of a research nerd, I decided to see what was out there in the realms of published studies that might confirm or refute the efficacy of conducting an equity audit. […]
A poll conducted by the NEA in January of 2022 found that more than half of all teachers surveyed said they will leave teaching earlier than they had originally planned. That’s already serious enough, but the percentages are even higher among Black (62%) and Hispanic/Latino (59%) educators, who are already underrepresented in the teaching profession. […]
Here’s a fascinating article from the Washington Post on the trend toward “community schools,” which takes a unique approach to addressing some of the problems that plague student academic success. The article begins by mentioning and dismissing the trend toward charter schools, pointing out that these have been around for a couple decades now and […]
In the last post, we talked about the state of civics education in the U.S., particularly its long, slow decline and its recent reappearance in the national spotlight as our country has struggled with how the events of January 6, 2020 could have come to pass. Very often, terms in education end up being empty […]
Not long ago, I wrote about a case in Rhode Island where students were suing the state for the right to an adequate civics education to enable them to participate effectively in the democracy of the U.S. In that article, I detailed some of the abysmal statistics surrounding general understanding of how our government works […]
In October of 2021, the New York City Public Schools announced that they would be phasing out their gifted and talented education program because of equity concerns. Citing the demographics of the program, which is 75% white and Asian even though the district as a whole is about 67% African American and Latino, the district […]
In late September of this year, AP News included a report from the state of Massachusetts showing declines on state standardized tests in both ELA and math performance. The report compared student performance on the MCAS (state test) from 2019 to the 2021 results and showed significant losses, particularly in elementary math. This shouldn’t come as […]
Last post, we talked about Critical Race Theory as a graduate-level framework (lens) that arose during the 1970s among legal scholars as a way of looking at institutions, legislation, and practices to determine if they (not individuals) were perpetuating racism. Like any other critical lens, Critical Race Theory is a way of focusing on a […]
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been in the news a lot recently, cast in both a positive and a negative light. Some contend it’s an important lens to apply to institutions and systems across the U.S., others say it’s divisive and intended to make white people feel guilty for racist practices of the past. Several […]
Here’s something fascinating: a group of students in a civics class are suing their state government because they believe all students have a right to a basic civics education. The lawsuit began in 2018 and was dismissed by a lower court in October of 2020. The plaintiffs appealed, stating they have a constitutional right to […]