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

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 Since 1980, spending on prisons has grown three times as much as spending on public education via The Washington Post

While government spending for education is still higher than government spending on prisons, it is disheartening to know that, while school spending has only doubled since the 1980’s, prison spending has more than tripled. Read the article from The Washington Post to learn more. 

“From 1980 to 2013, state and local spending on public schools doubled, from $258 billion to $534 billion, according to the analysis. Over the same period, the number of people incarcerated in state and local prisons more than quadrupled, and spending also increased by more than four times, from $17 billion to $71 billion.”

 

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The dangerous message some educators send to black students via The Washington Post

The Washington Post recently posted an article by Joseph N. Cook, an English instructor at Columbia State Community College in Columbia, Tennessee. Cook makes it clear that teachers and authority figures are often sending the wrong message to black students. That message is that they don’t matter to anyone if they look “black.”

“Let me be clear. This is not about letting students sag their pants. This is about the insidious message we send to our students, a message that rests on respectability politics. As teachers, we all too often believe and reinforce the societal narrative that asserts that one’s potential correlates with one’s respectable appearance. As a black man, I can personally attest that many black students are rarely assessed solely on their academic merits, but rather on their ability to look and dress as “non-threatening” as possible. That usually means dressing “well off,” which usually means dressing “white.” (Let’s be honest: They’re usually seen as the same thing.)”

 

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We have the answer, we choose to ignore it via Nate Bowling

This article discusses the tragedy of continued segregation as a result of white flight. Our schools are more segregated than they were sixty years ago. So how do we combat this? It is a choice made by every family. There is beauty, not shame, in a mixed race neighborhood, and it is the only way to fight segregation.

“We make a choice, we make it everyday. When young, white professionals, live in a working class, mixed race neighborhood as long as they must, but flee to whiter wealthier confines, as soon as they can or when it’s time to have children, they serve as the foot-soldiers of neighborhood and school segregation. Most urban segregation is the result of the absence of white families–white flight. Put differently, people of color do not choose to live in segregation. Segregation is created by white families when they make the choice, conscious or otherwise, to leave communities, en masse. This framing is essential in understanding and solving the problem.”

 

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Why so many black, Hispanic and poor kids miss out on gifted education via The Washington Post

How do teachers and parents who nominate gifted candidates miss so many disadvantaged children? This article from The Washington Post explores the reasons behind why so few black, Hispanic, and poor students don’t typically get picked for gifted programs, while offering solutions for how we can change that.

“All second-graders took a short test on shapes and designs. Those who scored well were given a three-hour IQ test. That produced a big jump in the number of third-graders who met the IQ standards for the district’s gifted program. The additional students were disproportionately poor, black or Hispanic and more likely to have parents who spoke a language other than English.”

 

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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: