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Talking about Hatred and a New Preschool Experiment | Last Week’s Best Articles

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


The first thing teachers should do when school starts is talk about hatred in America. Here’s help. via Washington Post

The 2017-2018 school year is getting started, and teachers nationwide should expect students to want to discuss what happened in Charlottesville as well as other expressions of racial and religious hatred in the country.

While such discussions are often seen as politically charged and teachers like to steer clear of politics, these conversations are about fundamental American values, and age-appropriate ways of discussing hatred and tolerance in a diverse and vibrant democracy are as important as anything young people can learn in school.


The High-Speed Preschool Experiment via The Atlantic

Armed with research showing that preschool delivers long-term benefits, particularly to low-income students, states more than doubled their spending on pre-K between 2006 and 2016, when total spending reached $7.4 billion.

Throughout the U.S., children from low-income families are less likely than their advantaged peers to go to preschool and more prone to spend their days at home or with relatives until kindergarten begins. Faced with this pre-K shortage, districts across the country have turned to a cheaper, briefer alternative: preschool crash courses like the one in Lafayette.


Call Her RoboKid: How a Cutting-Edge Robot Is Helping an Ohio Student Attend Classes While She’s Sick at Home via The 74 Million

Using the VGo mobile interactive device, a seventh-grade student with a medical condition that prevents her from attending classes in person will have the next best option: being present at school in real time via video, able to navigate the halls, stay connected with her classmates, and interact with her teachers.

School board member Lisa Johnson-Bowers says the robot will not only help a student confined to her home but also provide an opportunity for growth and understanding for the girl’s entire class. “It changes their life,” she says. “It’s really cool.”


One thing to read this week…

The Racist Origins of Private School Vouchers via American Progress

White flight from public schools to segregation academies in Alabama had devastating effects on districts’ abilities to raise funds. As more white students left the public system, white taxpayers became reluctant to raise property taxes to fund their public schools.

The rise of private schools and the diversion of public funds to those private schools through vouchers was a direct response of white communities to desegregation requirements. The trend of increasing racial and economic segregation is a nationwide trend—not just in Alabama and other Southern states.


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

August 18, 2017
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The Expectations Project
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  1. “The first thing teachers should talk about” resonated because of its compatibility with other research I’ve been conducting. I would like to know more about some of the discussions and, some of the ways teachers broached the discussions.