Fascinating article in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine about new efforts to integrate school districts by class, now that the Supreme Court has outlawed assignments based on race.

While the issue is probably irrelevant in much of Baltimore City, where many white, middle class parents send their children to private schools, I could see it having legs in diverse suburban districts like Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.

The article raises a host of interesting questions: How many poor students can a majority-affluent school accommodate without a perceived decline in quality? A significant number, the researchers quoted conclude. What conditions need to be in place for class-based integration to work? A Harvard economist says affluent and poor students must be together not only in the same building, but also in the same classes. If the poor kids are all put in low-level classes, it defeats the purpose. Will class-based integration lead to racial integration? In some cases yes, in others no.

The article mentions at least one school system where economics-based school assignments seem to be working. In Wake County, N.C., the system ensures that no more than 40 percent of students at a school come from a low-income area, and no more than 25 percent speak English as a second language. Test scores have improved among both black students and poor students. But in San Francisco, a diversity plan based on socioeconomics has resulted in racial resegregation of schools.

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Canton Middle School students participating in a civic engagement program run by the nonprofit Students Sharing Coalition have written letters to City Councilman Jim Kraft explaining why they want a new middle/high school to go in their building. While the decision is not Kraft's to make and the school system is going ahead with plans for the new school despite community opposition, Kraft has threatened to hold up the system's budget, which goes before the council at a hearing on Friday. 

In their letters, the students describe why they want a better education and what they will do to make Canton a better community. I'm posting 10 of the letters here.

Continue reading "Canton students write their councilman" »

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Just in case you missed it, the General Assembly unanimously approved a bill Monday night requiring schools to provide disabled students access to sports programs, either among themselves or with able-bodied students.

 Under the measure known as the Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities, schools have three years to fully implement the requirements.

The legislation, which takes effect in July, requires local school systems to submit their plans to the state education department, which would investigate complaints and could sideline noncompliant teams or withhold money from schools or school systems. 

Not everyone is pleased with the law. I received a number of e-mails from angry readers since this story ran.

One message from a reader in Hunt Valley included this rant about Tatyana McFadden, an accomplished high school wheelchair athlete who currently races alongside able-bodied athletes in Howard County : “I LOOK FORWARD TO THE DAY WHEN SHE INJURES SOMEONE (LIKE SPIKING ONLY WITH A WHEEL) AND SHE GETS THE CRAP SUED OUT OF HER.....YEAH WE ALL GET IT, TOO. CRIPPLE PEOPLE SHOULD GET IT THROUGH THEIR HEADS, AND IDIOTS, AND MORONS THAT THE WORLD DOESN'T OWN THEM ANYTHING.....WHEN I WAS YOUNG (OVER 50 YEARS AGO) PEOPLE UNDERSTOOD THEY HAD LIMITATIONS AND THEY ADAPTED........IF YOU COULDN'T GET UP THE STEPS YOU EITHER CRAWLED OR YOU DIDN'T GO UP THEM....NOW NON- HANDICAPPED PEOPLE HAVE TO BE HANDICAPPED SO HANDICAPPED PEOPLE ARE EQUAL....WELL THEY ARE NOT EQUAL,THEY HAVE A HANDICAP..............GET IT……”

Needless to say there was a lot more of the same in this e-mail.

I wonder if this was the same opinion shared by some when women and people of color attempted to break down athletic barriers in the past?

Supporters of the new legislation say that it will essentially level the playing field for all students.
 What do you think?

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In the past year, we’ve repeatedly seen the need for racial sensitivity. Just ask Don Imus. This week, Carroll County has been grappling with its own controversy connected to a school board member, Jeffrey L. Morse, who admitted using a racial slur during a visit to a high school construction site.

Fellow Sun education reporter Arin Gencer reports that Morse resigned Wednesday from his position after a board meeting where several people expressed outrage with him and the decision-making of the group.

According to Arin’s article, the incident where the racial slur was used occurred a few weeks ago at the construction site of the new Manchester Valley High School. Morse was at the site to learn about problems encountered with some dark rock, according to the article. Arin reports that when a large boulder was pointed out to Morse, he mentioned a term that he said contractors in the area around Littlestown, Pa., not far from where he lives, used to describe it.

Morse, who was appointed by the governor to fill a vacant board seat last year, currently teaches biology at Littlestown High School and was running for his first full term this year.

According to the article, Morse previously offered to resign in a closed session that the board held a couple of weeks ago to address a complaint filed against him. His fellow members instead told him to apologize, according to Edmund O'Meally, the board's legal counsel.

What do you think? Should Morse have resigned immediately? Should the school board have requested his resignation instead of relying on a simple apology? Or are you tired of apologies associated with this type of behavior? Talk to me.

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The renowned author on educational inequality, who waged a hunger strike last fall to protest No Child Left Behind, will speak at Goucher College at 8 p.m. April 16 in the Haebler Memorial Chapel. His talk, called "The Soul of a Profession," is free and open to the public, but tickets must be reserved in advance. Call 410-337-6333 or email boxoffice@goucher.edu.

Kozol is speaking in honor of Goucher education professor Eli Velder's 50th anniversary with the college.

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Not well, according to a new report by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and two other advocacy groups. The study looks at the experiences that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families have in K-12 education. Its title: "Involved, Invisible, Ignored."

The study's authors received completed surveys from 588 gay and lesbian parents nationwide and from 154 of their middle and high school-aged children. Compared with a national sample of all parents, the gay and lesbian parents were more involved: 94 percent had attended an event such as a back-to-school night or a parent-teacher conference in the past year, compared with 77 percent in the general parent population. They were also more likely to have volunteered in their children's school and, in high schools, more likely to be a member of the PTA.

Yet more than half of the parents reported being excluded from their school community in some way, and more than a quarter said they had been mistreated by other parents. Among students, 42 percent said they had been harassed in the past year because of their parents' sexual orientation. Twenty-two percent said that a teacher, principal or other school staff member had discouraged them from talking about their family at school.

What steps can schools take to make all families feel welcome? In this case, the report recommends anti-bullying policies and legislation; training school staff to intervene in cases of bullying and harassment; supporting of clubs such as gay-straight student alliances; and increasing student exposure to information about gay and lesbian people, history and events.

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This news release from the ACLU made me shake my head.

In response to an ACLU complaint, Nevada's Esmeralda County School District has lifted a ban prohibiting students from speaking Spanish on the school bus. The ban was approved by the Esmeralda County school board in October.

According to the press release, the Spanish ban directly impacted about a dozen high school students from a small farming and ranching community who ride the bus an hour and a half each way to a school in a neighboring county. In the afternoons, there is a 45-minute academic period on the bus, during which time the students are expected to speak English. The second 45 minutes is supposed to be free time.

A letter from the school superintendent, posted on the ACLU's Web site, says students are still required to speak in English to the bus driver and to the tutor aboard the bus.

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A slew of media outlets - including our sister paper The Chicago Tribune - have filed a motion challenging the decisions by a judge to close the proceedings in Mychal Bell's juvenile case. The judge, J.P. Mauffray, also called for a gag order for all parties involved in the case.

Bell is the first of the six black Louisiana teenagers known as the “Jena 6” to face trial.

Read more about the legal debate here.

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"Jena 6" gave Americans a wake up call to a major soft spot in society today – race relations.

In this USA Today article, Marisol Bello, a talented reporter who used to work at my old paper the Detroit Free Press, compiles examples from across the country. She leads with a familiar anecdote from the University of Maryland.

Another example in Winchester, Ky., was particularly disturbing. In that case, four teens were charged with terroristic threats for taunting a black classmate with drawings of a noose, a Confederate flag and someone being whipped and lynched. I wasn’t necessarily disturbed by the actions of the teens – heck, it takes a lot to surprise me at this point. I was disgusted by the reaction of the parent of one of the offenders.

“I know he meant nothing by it,“ she said. “I know he’s not racist. He said he was just joking around. They were passing time in class."

Joking around? Passing time in class? Are you serious? I’m so sick of hearing the “he/she was just fooling around” excuse. People, take some ownership for your hate. Stop passing the buck…

Also, check out these stories about nooses found at the Coast Guard Academy and at Columbia University.

Race-relations in this country are in need of some serious attention. Read the entire article, and look at the description of the perpetrators. Are you also bothered by the fact that these incidents are taking place in learning environments?

What is being taught in the classroom to encourage civility and tolerance? What are schools doing to thwart the damaging, hateful thoughts that many parents are forcing upon their children? Are there any programs/ teachers that you know about that are working to encourage a better heterogenous tomorrow?

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Yet another chapter in the Jena 6 saga. This time, the AP is reporting another noose incident that occurred. This incident occurred at Alma J. Brown Elementary School in Grambling, La. A teacher at the school wrapped a noose around a student’s neck to teach a lesson about racism. The lesson was actually prompted by the Jena 6 happenings.

Another interesting wrinkle to the story is that the school is run by Grambling State University, a historically black college and university.

Check out the CNN.com interview with Grambling’s president, Horace A. Judson. Also check out this YouTube video of a newscast.

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Milford Mill Academy teacher Pamela Nevel sounded like a proud mother in her email as she wrote about the hundreds of students who showed up yesterday morning to protest in support of the "Jena 6," as thousands of others did across Maryland and the rest of the nation.

"It was super and moving," she wrote.

Several of her students also wrote in yesterday with their own accounts of how the protest had affected them. Read comments they sent to us here at Classroom Connections. Among the comments was this gem from 10th-grader Janakhte' Page:

"I, along with Briana Haden, held up a sign that read "Honk if you support the Jena 6". We held that sign up with pride and screamed to the top of our lungs. ... Most people just ignore racism or pretend that it doesn't exist because they do not want to face the truth and the pain of racism. No one pays attention until somebody gets hurt or gets put in jail and that is exactly what happened. Racism is alive and I feel that the protest let people know that it still is. I was proud to be a part of a positive protest that reflects our community's consideration for others."