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School encourages homophobic humiliation as student punishment

Two Arizona high school students who were caught fighting faced a controversial punishment concocted by their principal: Either endure a suspension, or sit in the school courtyard holding hands while other students shout and throw homophobic slurs at you, Takepart.com reports. The message here seems to be that there’s nothing more horrific than being perceived as gay. Student Brittney Smyers told ABC 15, “Kids were laughing at them and calling them names asking, ‘Are you gay?’” Pictures of the boys holding hands surfaced online with some singing the principal’s praises, while others denounced his tactics as shortsighted and discriminatory…

 

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The future of STEM education may be at risk

It’s not every day that high school students get the chance to meet a renowned physicist. But Arkansas high school students spent Tuesday listening to Dr. James Gates, a noted African-American theoretical physicist, talk about his career and the importance of a STEM education, TakePart.com reports.

“There are half of million jobs that can’t find Americans to hire because they don’t have the skills level,” he told the packed auditorium at Philander Smith College in Little Rock. “These are the jobs you most want to have in the future.”

Who could fill those? More students who focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classes in high school and college. Gates is a professor of physics at the University of Maryland in College Park but also serves on President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In that capacity, he advises Obama on myriad topics including the increasing need for STEM education in the United States……Read More

Op-Ed: ‘Our schools have ignored the flight of great teachers’

Recently, many of the nation’s leading education experts gathered with classroom teachers to discuss the state of education in America at the annual Education Nation summit in New York, says TakePart.com. The conversation raised some valuable insights about the future of our schools and in particular, how to ensure we have great teachers in every classroom. As a 33-year veteran teacher, I still feel as passionate as ever about my profession. However, I have serious concerns about our nation’s ability to keep talented educators in the classroom after three years, let alone three decades. During my career, I’ve seen many great teachers leave the classroom while still in their prime. Most hadn’t grown tired of teaching. Instead, they left because they didn’t get the recognition they deserve from their schools or from the district. They left because they didn’t see opportunities to advance their careers. They left because they were being neglected…

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Stuck in a ‘Rubber Room’

The infamous “rubber room,” a place where teachers who face disciplinary charges sit, knit, and stare at the wall while collecting their full paycheck, was meant to be abolished in New York in 2010, TakePart reports. While progress has been made, with not as many teachers languishing in these reassignment centers each school day, approximately 200 educators are still caught in the system while awaiting a hearing. This year alone, these teachers will cost the city $22 million. Although these teachers aren’t in a traditional rubber room, the New York Daily News reports that educators are sitting “in broom closets, unused offices—even stinky locker rooms—in school buildings all over the city.”

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Special education in the U.S. has a long way to go—here’s what schools can do about it

In 1965, Congress passed legislation that created a bureau to examine the problems facing special needs students in the nation’s public schools, TakePart reports. But nearly 50 years later, these students still deal with too much discrimination and bullying in schools. In fact, a recent study released by the Department of Education reports a record number of disability-related civil rights complaints. In the last three years, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) “received over 11,700 disability-related complaints—more than ever before in a three-year period, and more than half of the total complaints received by OCR during this period.”

The numbers are, indeed, shocking. The survey examined 72,000 schools that teach 85 percent of America’s children, 12 percent of which were identified as special needs students…

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Inadequate teaching may soon become a thing of the past for many special needs kids

The Department of Education has just made their largest investment ever in improving education for students with disabilities, TakePart reports. With the goal of establishing a cohesive system to effectively train teachers who work with disabled children, the department’s Office of Special Education Programs has granted $25 million over the next five years to the University of Florida’s College of Education. Starting in January, the CEDAR Center will work with select states to help them bolster training for special education teachers, general teachers, and school district leaders—all of whom work directly with special needs children…

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These kids have high rates of homelessness, poverty, pregnancy- but almost all go to college

Kalamazoo, Mich., is home to two area high schools―Central High and Loy Norrix, TakePart reports. The schools’ student bodies exemplify some distressing statistics―one in three falls below the national poverty line, one in 12 is homeless, and among its black students, the city has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the state, The New York Times reports. But those statistics seem almost inconsequential in light of the fact that each of these students―as long as they graduate from high school―is getting free tuition to any public Michigan college or university of their choosing. How is that possible? The Times says it’s because of a mysterious scholarship program called the Kalamazoo Promise. Back in 2005, Janice M. Brown, the city’s superintendent of public schools, announced unnamed donors were pledging to pay the college tuition of every area student who graduated from the district’s high schools. And whoever those donors are, they’ve kept that promise every year since…

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High school in less than four years?

In Arizona, hundreds of high school students are now being offered the opportunity to graduate after their sophomore year — as long as they prove their academic mettle, TakePart reports. As a part of an innovative initiative called Move On When Ready, high-achieving students who prove they are capable of taking college-level courses without remedial help, are allowed to move on regardless of their class stature. Launched in 2011-2012, last school year about 12 schools in the state participated. This fall, the Center for the Future of Arizona (which supports the initiative and establishes the program in schools) estimates 30 high schools—including district, charter and private—now have Move On When Ready programs in place.

“We were interested in participating because it’s important for our students to have as many opportunities as possible for whatever career or college pathway they choose when they’re finished with us,” Cindy Miller, assistant superintendent for academic services in the Dysart Unified School District, told the Arizona Republic News...

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A high-poverty school gets the ultimate makeover

Jordan High School, located in the gang-ridden neighborhood of Watts, California, has historically been known for dropout rates, not for high achievement, TakePart reports. Principal Ronnie Coleman of Green Dot Public Schools and a group of dedicated teachers have set out to change this. Together, they are boosting achievement and showing students that graduating from high school and attending college is within their grasp. While advancements were made inside the classroom, with the help of Green Dot Public Schools, the outside of Jordan High still looked like a barren prison yard. Recently, changemaker Griffin Matthews of Uganda Project, along with a group of dedicated volunteers, local businesses, muralists, and community members stepped in to give the school grounds the ultimate makeover…

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Inspiring educators use this year’s election as a teachable moment

Dr. Jay Barth teaches history as it happens. Recently Barth traveled as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, TakePart reports. He left behind his students at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, where he serves as chair of the Department of Politics & International Relations. But they didn’t get to skip class just because Barth was gone. He taught his “American Parties & Elections” class remotely from Charlotte.

“I blended my traditional classroom teaching where my students were seated as I interacted with them virtually with my own political engagement,” Barth said. “The teaching and learning process in political science works best at the intersection of analysis and real-world experience.”

Like Barth, many teachers on the college level, and in K-12 classes, are using this year’s election as a teachable moment. And technology, as Barth realized, is a key component……Read More