The OTL Campaign's official blog

Buffalo NY Embraces Solutions Not Suspensions
Wednesday May 8th, 2013

In the three years since high school student Jawaan Daniels was fatally shot at a bus stop after being suspended from school for wandering the halls, advocates and organizers in Buffalo, NY, have built a movement to reform the district's discipline policies. Their hard work paid off in April when the school board approved a new student code of conduct that limits the use of out-of-school suspensions.

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New Book: Closing the Opportunity Gap
Wednesday May 8th, 2013

The National Center for Education Policy (NEPC), an OTL ally, has a new, must-read book about the change our nation needs to make from thinking about the achievement gap to trying to fix the opportunity gap that underlies it.

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Thurs. May 9th – Free D.C. Screening of "The New Public"
Wednesday May 8th, 2013

If you're in the D.C. area on Thurs. May 9th, we have a treat for you! There will be a free screening of "The New Public," a film by Jyllian Gunther that follows four years in the life of Brooklyn Community Arts and Media High School (BCAM). In a post-screening discussion, talk with filmmaker Jyllian Guntehr; Michael Rebell from the Campaign for Educational Equity; Carlos Rojas from Youth on Board; BCAM educator Lyntonia Coston; and AFT's Sabrina Stevens.

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Private School Voucher Expansion: A Growing Taxpayer‐Funded Entitlement
By John Forester, School Administrators Alliance
Monday May 6th, 2013

The ultimate objective of private school voucher advocates is a statewide system of private school vouchers for all Wisconsin school children. Voucher expansion is not only bad education policy. It is bad fiscal policy as well.

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"Who Is Teaching Our Kids, Mr. President?"
Tuesday April 30th, 2013

Many students, including those with disabilities, English Learners, students of color, and students from low-income or rural communities are being taught by teachers with little or no training. The 93-member Coalition for Teaching Quality asks that the US DOE compile a national report on the number of students being taught by teachers-in-training who are inappropriately identified as "highly qualified teachers" under federal law.

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