Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

7-15-19 Education in the News

Jersey Journal--Despite bullying, student chose ‘to never give up’ | Jersey Journal editorial

Graduation season has recently come to an end, but we’d like to extend it just a bit this year to share a commencement speech written, but never delivered, two years ago by an eighth-grader in Jersey City.

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/07/despite-bullying-student-chose-to-never-give-up-jersey-journal-editorial.html

Jersey Journal Editorial | Posted Jul 13, 2019

 

The Atlantic-- The White Suburbs That Fought Busing Aren’t So White Anymore

And the politics of school integration need not look like they used to.

One can see why Joe Biden wasn’t too worried about the busing issue. Sure, he had teamed up with segregationists in 1975 to cut the legs out from under federally mandated integration busing. Sure, he’d even called busing a “domestic Vietnam.” But for decades, that choice was shielded by a durable political consensus: Busing was and always would be a political disaster, beyond any hope of resurrection, and toxic to even talk about.

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/07/kamala-harris-busing-politics/593797/

Will Stancil| July 12, 2019

 

 

NPR--States Are Ratcheting Up Reading Expectations For 3rd-Graders

Nineteen states have adopted "mandatory retention" policies, which require third-graders who do not show sufficient proficiency in reading to repeat the grade.

Changes in education policy often emanate from the federal government. Think Common Core, the set of standards established in 2010 for what U.S. students should know. But one policy that has spread across the country came not from Washington, D.C., but from Florida. "Mandatory retention" requires that third-graders who do not show sufficient proficiency in reading repeat the grade. It was part of a broader packet of reforms proposed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2002.

Now 19 states have adopted the policy, in part because Bush has pushed hard for it.

 https://www.npr.org/2019/07/13/741156019/states-are-ratcheting-up-reading-expectations-for-3rd-graders

Alexandra Starr|July 13, 20195:12 PM ET

 

Chalkbeat--What it means when Democratic frontrunners say they support the Strength in Diversity Act

When Senator Kamala Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden sparred on the Democratic primary debate stage, they launched a national conversation about school desegregation and prompted questions about how candidates would tackle the issue as president.

Their exchange also raised the profile of legislation known as the Strength in Diversity Act, which several Democratic frontrunners have endorsed. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were both early co-sponsors of the bill, and Harris signed on just this week.

The legislation would create a federal grant program to fund racial and economic school integration efforts across the country.

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2019/07/11/strength-in-diversity-act-school-desegregation/

Kalyn Belsha|July 11, 2019

 

 

The Hechinger Report--OPINION: What’s missing in music education? Cultural and social relevance

Teaching 'music where kids are, and with what interests them'

I was trained and licensed to be a music teacher in the traditional American way.

My classes included all varieties of  instruments. I sang and learned to conduct bands, orchestras and choirs. I played in ensembles. I took multiple semesters of musical technique, history and theory as well as music education methods.

Almost all of what I just described was traditional. Incredibly traditional.

https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-whats-missing-in-music-education-cultural-and-social-relevance/

Lee Whitmore| July 15, 2019

 

Edutopia--The Reading Wars: Choice vs. Canon

English teachers are wrestling with how to navigate the increasingly contentious terrain between student choice and assigning the classics.

The day I arrive for the school-wide “Read-In” this past spring, teenagers and books are covering every available surface in Jarred Amato’s English classroom at Maplewood High School in Nashville, Tennessee—flung across lived-in couches, desks, and chairs. But there’s not a book one might traditionally identify as a “classic” in sight, and that’s by design.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/reading-wars-choice-vs-canon

Holly Korbey| July 9, 2019