No Wrong Answers

Activist Brittany Packnett created #BlackWomenAtWork. She says it was meant to start a conversation because the “slights”.against Waters and Ryan (things like comments about one’s hair) are experienced everyday by professional black women. We wanted to talk with Packnett about how #BlackWomenAtWork could be applied to the world of education.

Segregation, if you haven’t been paying attention, might strike you as an educational problem from a bygone era. But, in fact, it’s increasingly seen as a major problem in modern American schooling. Take Howard County, Maryland, one of that state’s most integrated districts.

Recently, the Kansas City, Missouri Public School District essentially declared itself a “sanctuary” district when the school board unanimously passed what it called a “safe and welcoming schools” resolution.

A new survey from the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center for Education Policy shows foreign exchange students think American schools are easy. Really easy. This is nothing new: the survey replicates a similar one done in 2001 that had nearly identical results. But our teachers take issue with what they call “school bashing” conclusions. They say, in short: “Define ‘easy.’”

Education Week reports at least 18 states have adopted some form an A-F grading system that relies primarily or partly on schools’ standardized test scores. And more states are reportedly debating legislation to adopt similar programs. But these grading systems are facing a “mounting backlash” from educators, superintendents and even parents who call an A-F system for schools overly simplistic and focused on the wrong measures.

How has teaching changed since Columbine and Sandy Hook, how would a proposed Republican healthcare bill affect students, and March Madness in the classroom?

In December, Teaching Tolerance released a guide for teachers called “The value of teaching protest” that argued in part that teaching students about protests shows them real-world examples of valuable skills:  “persistence, presence, planning and provocation.” Teachers, is there a value in trying to bring in ‘protests’ as a curricular subject?

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled school funding in the state is constitutionally inadequate. The Atlantic magazine said this “landmark ruling” could open the way for states to help close the achievement gap by funding schools more equitably. Our teachers are skeptical of such optimism.

In December, The New York Times described Brett Parker as “an elementary school teacher and rookie politician...a Democrat running against a Republican incumbent in a Republican state that the Republican presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, clinched by 20 percentage points. In spite of all that, Mr. Parker will be sworn into the Kansas House of Representatives next month.”

School choice has been a hot topic recently after Donald Trump featured the idea prominently in his joint address to Congress. But our teachers remain unconvinced a broad-based rollout of choice models--especially vouchers and tax credit scholarships--will be effective.