Driven by the simple belief that students are the ones in the classroom and they should be asked about their learning experiences, advocates from 10 states (including many OTL allies) came together at a convening at the Harvard Graduate School of Education to develop messaging and organizing strategies to push for student input in the decisions affecting their education and teacher evaluations. Already in a few states, there are policies that give students a voice in the classroom, and many other states and districts would like to change their own policies through student input.

Join the Opportunity to Learn Campaign (along with members of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, our partner in the Solutions Not Suspensions initiative) for a 60-minute webinar on October 3rd to learn how you can go from outrage over harsh school discipline polices to movement building! This webinar will examine how student organizers in Philadelphia were able to collect necessary data, build their coalition, and win a decisive victory bringing about alternatives to out-of-school suspensions.

The Urgency of Now: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males finds that almost half of Black and Latino males do not graduate high school in four years.  Without a policy framework that creates opportunity for all students, strengthens supports for the teaching profession and strikes the right balance between support-based reforms and standards-driven reforms, the U.S. will become increasingly unequal and less competitive in the global economy. Where does your state rank? Visit www.blackboysreport.org to learn more!

Today the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign is joining forces with the Dignity in Schools Campaign to launch Solutions Not Suspensions, a call for a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions. Every year, 3.3 million students in the United States are suspended from school, causing them to miss critical learning time, as well as opportunities to grow and succeed. Recent federal data show that Black and Latino students and students with disabilities are disproportionately targeted by suspensions. Solutions Not Suspension is calling on states and districts to support teachers and schools in dealing with discipline in positive ways – keeping students in the classroom and helping educators work with students and parents to create safe and engaging classrooms that protect the human rights to education and dignity.

In her annual Message on Public Education, Jan Resseger, Minister for Public Education and Witness at the United Church of Christ Justice, denounces the privatization of public education as the abdication of our responsibilities as citizens of a democratic nation to provide all children with a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. The 10-page Message also functions as a primer on how different aspects of the privatization movement (from vouchers to education management organizations to charters and online schools) are undermining the principles of fairness and opportunity that our country holds so dear.

17 percent of all African-American students received out-of-school suspensions in the 2009-2010 school year compared to 7 percent of Latino students and just 5 percent of White students. Even more shocking, 25 percent of African-American students with disabilities were suspended the same year. In "Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion From School," the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the UCLA's Civil Rights Project analyzes data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights on school discipline and suspensions in the 2009-10 school year. The comprehensive report reveals the unconscionable disparities regarding which students are pushed out of the classroom and locked out of school.

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.

Higher graduation rates typically correlate to lower incarceration rates. Why then do states with higher graduation rates for students of color also witness higher rates of incarceration for the same population? Because our criminal justice system, and the school-to-prison pipeline, disproportionately affects students of color.