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Racial Justice, Chris Emdin, and Title I | Last Week’s Best Articles In Education

Racial Justice, Chris Emdin, and Title I | Last Week's Best Articles In Education

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!


 

Report: Racial Justice in Education Requires Investment in Black America via Sojourners

A recent report published by the National Urban League shows that, while education equality has improved for Black American students, but there is still trouble when it comes to college graduation rates and access to high-quality education. The National Urban League is an organization that is pressing Congress to increase opportunity for early childhood education and provide more federal aid to black college students.

“About one-third of 18- to 24-year-old African Americans are enrolled in college today. And the percentage of African Americans with a bachelor’s degree or higher has more than tripled from 6.6 percent in 1976 to 22.2 percent in 2014, the report showed.”


Photo by Ryan Lash

Photo by Ryan Lash

What White Teachers Can Learn From Black Preachers via Mother Jones

In this interview with Chris Emdin, we see what white teachers can learn from black preachers. Emdin, an associate professor of math, science, and technology at Columbia University, argues that “the robbery of black and brown joy in our society is deeply problematic.” We are schooled from Emdin’s own experiences with teachers in high school, as well as from his own experience as a teacher in a predominantly black high school.

“It may be harder for white folks who don’t have racial, ethnic, cultural similarities to learn how to build relationships with black students and incorporate diverse forms of intellectual expression into classrooms, but the strategies I describe in my book are also for folks of color who hold those biases…”


 

New Map: School Funding Inequality, Often Measured By State, Is Far Worse Nationally Than You Think via The 74

Matt Barnum from The 74 explores a recent report that highlights why school funding inequities might be even worse than we may think. The report, published by EdBuild, shows that inequality between states is even worse than inequality within states. At both state and local levels, the poorer districts consistently get less funding across the country.

“Funding inequality nationally is worse overall than even the most unequal state. How could that be though? How could the total disparity across 50 states be worse than any individual one?”


LA Johnson/NPR

LA Johnson/NPR

The ‘Intolerable’ Fight Over School Money via NPR

NPR explores the current debate between the Education Department, headed by new Secretary John B. King Jr., and the senate education committee, currently led by Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee. How will this fight end? Read the article to see both sides. Racial Justice, Chris Emdin, and Title I | Last Week’s Best Articles In Education

Alexander and King disagree on how to enforce the new law governing Title I. It says that to get federal money, districts have to prove a few things — among them, that they’re using state and local dollars to provide roughly the same services to kids in poor and non-poor schools alike.

‘Basically, schools within a school district have to be similar,’ says Liz King, director of education policy at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. ‘The idea here is that if they’re not similar, then these federal dollars are just going to fill in gaps.’


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

June 1, 2016
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The Expectations Project
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