July 2012

The OTL Campaign's official blog
Tuesday July 31st, 2012

Interested in girls equity work? Live in New York? Then come join the Brooklyn Girls Collaborative and Girls Inc. of New York City for their 2012 Education Summit on Aug. 17th!

Tuesday July 31st, 2012

Early reading skills lay the foundation for all later learning, which makes closing the achievement gap in early reading particularly important. Thanks to the work of Massachusetts advocacy groups like Strategies for Children's Early Education for All campaign, MA policymakers are taking steps to close the state's achievement gap in third grade reading by creating an "Early Literacy Expert Panel."

Monday July 30th, 2012

If you survey a group of everyday people about the effects of government budget cuts, an overwhelming number of them will respond that the cuts have hurt schools and limited kids' opportunities to learn. The Huffington Post, as part of a series on the impact of austerity measures, asked its readers how budget cuts affected them and received an outpouring of troubling, personal stories from concerned teachers and parents.

Thursday July 26th, 2012

Michelle Rhee missed the mark in contributing to an informed debate about education reform with this Olympics-themed video, which features an overweight man floundering through a gymnastics routine and twirling ribbons to the jeers of an off-camera audience as a supposed metaphor for the state of our nation's education system. The video is wrong on so many levels, not the least of which is misunderstanding what truly ails our education system and the necessary steps to fix it.

Thursday July 26th, 2012

The 2012 version of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's annual "KIDS COUNT Data Book" provides a wealth of information about the well-being of our nation's children, including state-by-state data on educational opportunities, economic security, access to healthcare and family and community environments. The report illustrates the deep disparities between children of color and their White peers and between children from wealthy and low-income families in access to the opportunities and supports necessary to succeed in school and in life. Overall, the report finds that a higher percentage of students of color are living in poverty, not attending preschool, not graduating on time and don't have health insurance compared to non-Hispanic White children.