At the National OTL Summit in December, youth representatives from Boston and Chicago connected and discovered that they were working on similar campaigns to make student input a part of teacher evaluations. The Boston Student Advisory Council, working with groups like Youth on Board and Boston Youth Organizing Project, won their battle last summer and we featured their success on our blog.

It's a big week for studies focused the relationship between location and educational opportunity: First, the Schott Foundation's report on education redlining in New York City public schools that revealed city policies and practices systematically deny educational opportunities to the districts and schools with high percentages of poor and students of color.

The good news: More students than ever are enrolled in Pre-K programs in the U.S. The bad news: The rising number of Pre-K students coupled with state education budget cuts across the country has drastically reduced per-child spending on Pre-K programs.  

If policymakers want to play a bit of poker, they should save their gambling for the card table and keep it out of education reform. In a Huffington Post column, Schott Foundation President and CEO John Jackson calls the weak hand of the policymakers who are pushing for more privatization in our nation's public schools. 

Proposed fare hikes and changes in the service schedule for the Boston Metro, the "T,"  will have a serious impact on students' access to public transportation and, consequently, their ability to travel to and from school, city libraries and other educational opportunities across Boston.

In 2007, students from the Boston Student Advisory Council began demanding a voice in teacher evaluations. After designing a student-to-teacher feedback form, they had it approved by the Boston School Committee and implemented throughout the district. And in 2011, the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to make student feedback a mandatory component of official teacher evaluations.

Check out the video chronicling their organizing efforts below!

In 2007, students from the Boston Student Advisory Council began demanding a voice in teacher evaluations. After designing a student-to-teacher feedback form, they had it approved by the Boston School Committee and implemented throughout the district. In 2011, the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to make student feedback a mandatory component of official teacher evaluations.