Agents of Change: Disrupting School-to-Prison Pipeline

Agents of Change: Disrupting School-to-Prison Pipeline

Prevention We know many of the risk factors that require early intervention, such as mental illness, chronic absenteeism, and abuse. Failure to address these factors early on increases the probability of incarceration later. We need to make sure the children with the greatest need get the best teachers and we need to make sure we are meeting their learning needs.  Districts need mentoring programs, social and emotional curriculum, restorative justice polices, professional development strategies to build teacher and student efficacy, and aggressive efforts to promote academic success. We can’t just ignore it when kids are behind, and we can’t just suspend, expel, or refer kids away.

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Commentary/Henry A. Giroux

What cannot be exaggerated or easily dismissed is that Trump is the end result of a longstanding series of attacks on democracy and that his presence in the American political landscape has put democracy on trial. This is a challenge that artists, educators, and others must address. While mass civil demonstrations have and continue to erupt over Trump’s election, what is more crucial to understand is that something more serious needs to be addressed. We have to acknowledge that at this particular moment in American history the real issue is not simply about resisting Donald Trump’s insidious values and anti-democratic policies but whether a political system can be reclaimed in which democracy is not on trial but is deepened, strengthened and sustained.

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Sue Atkinson/Old Schools, Part 2

Populism nowadays is equated in popular media with bigotry and intolerance, but in the late 19th century, the populist movement represented rural residents’ desire to shape national policy that attended to the interests of producers as well as commercial interests. After losing the battle over monetary policy, the movement dwindled, the Democratic Party turned to corporate liberalism, and farmers’ interests were abandoned.

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Nancy Barno Reynolds/Education

Nancy Barno Reynolds/Education

ROSS FINDON PHOTO/ Unsplash   Those Who Can, Teach: Transitioning Through Education   by Nancy Barno Reynolds Education Editor tell people I’ve been teaching for 30 years and deep down, I feel that’s my...

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Teen Pregnancy: A Nurse’s Perspective

School officials are aware of, and knowledgeable about, requirements such as those delineated by Title IX.  These requirements promote inclusiveness and help prevent discrimination – and are intended to make it less likely that a pregnant teen will drop out of school.  Why then does the trend of drop-out teen mothers persist? Why, when we know that success in life is heavily predicated on educational attainment, do I continue to have conversations like the one above?

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Catherine Box/Education

eachers do not always know what tomorrow will bring as far as rhetoric or policy. This, unfortunately, is not new. Rollouts on things like national standards (most recently Common Core) and their accompanying tests, state graduation requirements, and schoolwide curricula happen at lightening speed, and educators try to keep up by figuring test preparation into their day, remain in compliance with laws, and shield their students from whatever harmful or hateful tweet has emerged from a friend, a foe, or the Oval Office.

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Education/Nancy Barno Reynolds

Education/Nancy Barno Reynolds

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash   Critical Literacy, Economic Growth, and the Standards Movement: Are We Speaking the Same Language?   by Nancy Barno Reynolds Education Editor he introduction of...

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