Despite being known for high college acceptance rates, Urban Prep Academies recently lost a charter to operate a school on Chicago’s west side.
Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Urban Prep Academy in Chicago made a name by boasting about its 100% college acceptance rates for graduating seniors. A founding teacher at Urban Prep explains why that statistic is misleading.
Students’ home and family backgrounds will be factored into their SAT scores.
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The College Board is adding a new ‘adversity score’ to the SAT to take students’ socioeconomic backgrounds into account. Will the move correct long-standing disparities in the college entrance exam?
Thurgood Marshall outside the Supreme Court in Washington in 1958. Marshall, the head of the NAACP’s legal arm who argued part of the case, went on to become the Supreme Court’s first African-American justice.
AP
While the Brown vs. Board of Education case is often celebrated for ordering school desegregation, history shows many black people in the city where the case began opposed integrated schools.
More and more schools are doing away with the valedictorian honor.
Joseph Sohm from www.shutterstock.com
More schools are deciding to scrap the tradition of naming a valedictorian – just as students from diverse backgrounds are becoming the first of their background to win the honor.
Yoga classes are becoming more prevalent in America’s schools.
Africa Studio / www.shutterstock.com
Yoga and mindfulness are becoming more prevalent in America’s public schools. But are they subtly promoting religion? A scholar who has served as an expert witness in several yoga cases weighs in.
Parents gather in a circle to pray at a recreation center where students were reunited with their parents after a shooting at a suburban Denver middle school May 7.
David Zalubowski/AP
The 1999 Columbine high school shooting spawned a generation of school shooters who tried to copy it, research shows.
Students listen to their teacher, Shuma Das, at the Sahabatpur Daspara Ananda school in Sahabatpur village, Bangladesh in 2016.
Dominic Chavez/World Bank
For children of migrant farmworkers in California, school gets disrupted due to a controversial housing policy that makes migrants leave town during the off-season, a documentary filmmaker reveals.
Parents collectively spend billions on tutoring. Is it money well spent?
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Tutoring is a billion-dollar industry. A former tutor explains what to look for in a tutor for your child and urges parents to consider free options before they open up their pocketbooks.
LeBron James speaks at the opening ceremony for the I Promise School in Akron, Ohio.
Phil Long/AP
In order to be successful, the I Promise Academy needs to confront issues of race – much like LeBron James himself, who launched the school amid great fanfare in 2018, an education scholar argues.
Teachers rally outside the Arizona Capitol in April 2018 during a strike over low salaries.
Matt York/AP
A presidential candidate wants to use federal funds to boost teacher pay. Is the proposal justified or is it just pandering to teacher unions to get votes? An education scholar provides perspective.
Jessie Dean Gipson Simmons, shown top center about age 37, c. 1961.
[Clockwise: daughter Angela, sons Obadiah Jerone, Jr. and Carl,
and husband Obadiah Jerone, Sr.; daughters Carolyn and Quendelyn are not pictured]
Simmons family archives
When Jessie Simmons applied for a teaching job in 1958, her application went to a separate file for “Negro teachers” and got rejected. An education scholar recounts how Simmons fought back and won.
Students, parents and teachers participate in a school choice rally in Jackson, Mississippi.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
A number of states are considering laws to put charter school growth on pause, saying they drain resources from public schools. A school finance expert explains the logic behind the efforts.
Baltimore schools were shut down temporarily in January 2018 after heating units failed during bitterly cold weather.
Patrick Semansky/AP
Schools throughout America’s low-income communities have been deteriorating for years. Now’s the time to do something about it, an education scholar argues.
Teachers, students and supporters rally in front of City Hall in Oakland, Calif., in February.
Jeff Chiu/AP
Teachers’ unions often claim they are striking for better schools on behalf of students. A closer look at recent strikes suggests they are fighting for something else: membership.
A Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington, D.C., in 1926.
Everett Historical from www.shutterstock.com
Schools do a poor job of teaching about America’s legacy of white supremacy, and the blackface scandal of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is proof, a scholar who researches racial discrimination says.
Striking teachers are increasingly casting their struggle as being part of a broader struggle for social justice.
David Zalubowski/AP
The teacher strikes that have swept the US represent a new shift in teacher activism that has led teacher unions to align with broader social and racial justice movements, an education scholar says.
Some charter school operators make profits by leasing space to themselves at unusually high rates.
By Ilya Andriyanov from www.shutterstock.com
Charter school operators have been capitalizing on lax laws that let them lease building space to themselves at above-market rates. A simple ban could end the practice, two education scholars argue.
Denver public school teachers went on strike on Feb. 11 and successfully eliminated a controversial bonus-based pay system.
David Zalubowski/AP
Nathan Favero, American University School of Public Affairs
Through a three-day strike, Denver teachers got rid of a bonus-based pay system that they say was unfair. An education policy expert explains what the end of bonus-based pay means for Denver schools.
Zero tolerance polices in school discipline are on the decline, new data show.
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Zero tolerance policies in America’s schools are declining, but you might not be able to tell since so many practices get lumped under the ‘zero tolerance’ label, a school discipline expert says.