Our team is always seeking the latest news in the field of education. As advocates for a quality education for ALL students, we know we have to stay up-to-date on everything that’s going on in the education spheres of our nation…from the White House to the local public school district, from new legislation to the small acts of bravery and kindness made by a single teacher, from the milestones and celebrations to the hazardous injustices affecting many of our nations students.

Here’s the best stories we came across last week…because we believe you should stay up-to-date, too!

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Investigation Shows That Inequality In School Funding Is A Legacy Of Racial Injustice via Equal Justice Initiative

More than 20 NPR member-station reporters were recently a part of an investigative team that found inequalities in school funding stem from our country’s history of racial injustice.

In a series of stories, these reporters examine why funding can vary so drastically not only between states, but also between zip codes. Also, they will question why states are spending less on each student today than they were in 2008.

“Today, public schools across America remain racially segregated, and the achievement gap between the wealthiest and poorest students is growing dramatically.”

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How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across A Lifetime via TED

Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains the medical science behind childhood trauma and how it can affect you long after you grow up. Repeated stress caused from abuse, neglect, and having a parent who suffers from poor mental health can have tangible effects on the brain, making a child more likely to develop heart disease or cancer as they age.

“This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to confront the prevention and treatment of trauma, head-on.”

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Why should schools move away from suspensions? We asked student activists to weigh in via Chalkbeat New York

Chalkbeat New York met with student members of the advocacy group Urban Youth Collaborative to ask why they support a “restorative” approach to school discipline. Schools in New York are looking at new ways to discipline other than suspensions, and, better yet, how to prevent suspensions with restorative measures such as counseling and relationship building.

“Schools across New York City are giving out fewer and fewer suspensions, prodded along by a new discipline code that limits when students can be sent out of their schools. That has left some schools grasping for new discipline tactics, with teachers uncertain about how to respond to serious misbehavior.”

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On the anniversary of Brown v. Board, new evidence that U.S. schools are resegregating via The Washington Post

Despite efforts made over the past century towards integration, schools are becoming increasingly more segregated. The Washington Post explores recent data explaining why schools are becoming more segregated and moving in the opposite direction they were more than fifty years ago.

“Poor, black and Hispanic children are becoming increasingly isolated from their white, affluent peers in the nation’s public schools, according to new federal data showing that the number of high-poverty schools serving primarily black and brown students more than doubled between 2001 and 2014.”

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Did any of these articles particularly speak to you? We would love to know your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below: