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February 2012

The OTL Campaign's official blog

Stealing an Opportunity to Learn
Michael Holzman, Senior Research Consultant, The Schott Foundation for Public Education
Wednesday February 29th, 2012

Tanya McDowell, the Connecticut mother who was accused of fraudulently enrolling her son in a better school, only wanted what was best for her child in a world where ethnicity and local income are strongly linked to the quality of schools and opportunities available to students. 

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5 NYC Students Arrested Per Day, Majority Are Students of Color
Tuesday February 28th, 2012

Today in unconscionable inequalities and harsh school discipline policies is a report from the New York Police Department revealing that from October to December 2011 an average of five students were arrested each school day. 75 percent of those arrested were male and 93.5 percent were students of color.

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CDF Data: Access to Full-Day Kindergarten in the U.S.
Wednesday February 22nd, 2012

This insightful infographic from the Children's Defense Funds lays out a child's access, or lack thereof, to full-day kindergarten in every state, breaking down early childhood education programs by availability and whether the programs are funded by the state or out of pocket by parents.

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Right Problem, Wrong Solution

By John Jackson, President & CEO, Schott Foundation for Public Education
Friday February 17th, 2012

While the Schott Foundation is pleased that Kentucky legislators are reviewing its data to address the alarming low graduation rate of African American males, we are concerned that they are considering the wrong solution to the problem: charter schools.

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We Need More “Leading” in “Read to Lead” Initiative
By Thomas Beebe, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools
Friday February 17th, 2012

Gov. Walker's "Read to Lead" initiative sounds nice in theory, but we need to have a serious discussion about the realities of implementing this early literacy program when Walker has already imposed drastic cuts to education, one of the state's most needed public services. 

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