The following column was originally posted on The Answer Sheet blog.
If it takes a village to raise a child, the same village must share accountability when many children are educationally abandoned. In New York City, the nation’s largest school system, on average student outcomes...
It's not fair to hold students, teachers and administrators accountable for education outcomes when they lack the resources they need to succeed in the first place. But corporate-style education policies and an overemphasis on testing have resulted in an education "reform" movement that is focused exclusively on outputs rather than inputs. In a fantastic column published in Amsterdam News, New York City parent organizer Ocynthia Williams criticizes Mayor Michael Bloomberg'...
Check out this great piece from Bill Kopsky, Executive Director of the Arkansas Public Policy Panel, about how the charter school debate is distracting from making real progress with education reform. Kopsky lays out eight characteristics of successful schools ranging from early childhood education and parent engagement to sufficient funding and access to higher education. He acknowledges that both public and charter schools can provide these, but that we...
In a major victory for Colorado students and the movement to end zero-tolerance discipline policies, the Colorado state legislature passed a bill that gives schools more flexibility in school discipline policies and encourages them to pursue restorative justice practices rather than referring students to law enforcement. Senate Bill 46, called the "Fair Discipline in Schools Act," is one of the most far-reaching state laws on the issue of school discipline reform and puts CO at the...
The fight for fair funding policies is New York is far from over. Years after the landmark Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling, the state has reversed its promise to adequately fund schools and to provide every student with a "sound basic education" though a series of devastating education budget cuts over the last several years. Now, Hussein v. The State of New York is challenging the state to live up to its 2006 CFE promise.
Hussein v. State, also known...
