Muhammed Akil | The 74

“In both private thought and public commemorations, many of us continue to reflect on the great life of Muhammad Ali. Rather than celebrate the man in general terms – the great athlete, the provocative speaker, the civil rights activist – let’s challenge ourselves to find the same courage he showed throughout his life to aggressively address our difficult social issues head on. We can choose to begin by acknowledging that education is the civil rights issue of our time.

Ali once stated, ‘A man who views the world at 50, the same as he did at 20, has wasted 30 years.’ This comment defines the importance of constantly evolving, developing, and not simply accepting ‘what is,’ but rather embracing ‘what could be.'”

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The Economist

“TO THE 11- and 12-year-olds in his maths class, Jimmy Cavanagh seems like a born teacher. He is warm but firm. His voice is strong. Correct answers make him smile. And yet it is not his pep that explains why his pupils at North Star Academy in Newark, New Jersey, can expect to go to university, despite 80% of their families needing help to pay for school meals.

Mr Cavanagh is the product of a new way of training teachers. Rather than spending their time musing on the meaning of education, he and his peers have been drilled in the craft of the classroom. Their dozens of honed techniques cover everything from discipline to making sure all children are thinking hard. Not a second is wasted. North Star teachers may seem naturals. They are anything but.”

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Alejandra Matos | StarTribune

“The Minneapolis school board approved a three-year contract with new superintendent Ed Graff.

Graff will begin his job on July 1 with an annual salary of $225,000, compared with $190,000 for former superintendent Bernadeia Johnson.

Last year, before selecting a new superintendent, the school board set a higher salary in an effort to attract high-caliber candidates. The average salary for an urban superintendent was $242,000 in 2014, according to the Council of the Great City Schools.”

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Rebecca Klein | HuffPost Education

“In America, the most rigorous classes, experienced teachers and moderate discipline practices tend to be reserved for white students, according to new survey results from the U.S. Department of Education.

The Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection surveys 99 percent of the nation’s public schools on issues related to the level of opportunity provided to their students. The survey, which is conducted every other school year, collects data about students’ access to classes, teachers and school discipline trends. The latest survey, which has data from the 2013-2014 school year, also collected data on issues like student absenteeism and the quality of education provided in juvenile justice facilities.”

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Nathan Strenge | MinnPost

“Not too long ago, I was teaching math at a public school just outside the Twin Cities. I loved my job, and I loved my students. Teaching advanced placement statistics, I worked tirelessly to foster strong relationships with students built on trust and high expectations. But when budget cuts rolled around in 2011, I was told I was being laid off. The principal expressed to me how disappointed he was – that he knew I was making a difference in our students’ lives. He fought as hard as he could to keep me, yet was met with one insurmountable roadblock: LIFO.”

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By Susan Du | City Pages

“Theo Olson, a special ed teacher of 16 years, caught heat this March after writing controversial Facebook posts complaining about cell phones, drugs, and the lack of student discipline at Como Park High.

Later, Black Lives Matter St. Paul published extensive excerpts from a private blog Olson had written, which were offered as further evidence he was not qualified to teach non-white students.”

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Nicole Thomas | Medium

“A year ago I was appalled to discover, from local news reports, that police had arrested a teacher at my two kids’ school, P.S. 256 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, for performing a sex act on a student. I was concerned about how a person like Mr. Grant could have slipped through the cracks to end up in the front of a classroom. As a parent, I want to prevent any future Mr. Grants from entering my kids’ school or any other school in the city.

Last month, a group of parents joined me to attend a town hall meeting with Chancellor Carmen Farina to ask her questions about follow up from the incident and how to prevent it from happening anywhere again. When I looked into the case, I learned that there are several problems in the system that made this possible, so I wanted to know if the Chancellor is working to fix them.”

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Mareesa Nicosia | The 74

“As the principal recounts the story, one of her seventh-graders was playing basketball outside on the playground as students were dismissed from Enrico Fermi School 17 the day before Christmas break last year.

Another student appeared in the waning light of the December afternoon, an eighth-grader who should not have been at the school because he’d been suspended for fighting. The older student approached the basketball player from behind, put a gun to his back, and marched him toward the school amid a throng of students.”

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Sharif El-Mekki | Philly.com

“Two weeks ago, Gov. Wolf vetoed a bill that would have helped school principals ensure that our most effective teachers are in classrooms for the 128,000 students who attend the Philadelphia School District. This is a missed opportunity to put the needs of kids over the needs of adults.

House Bill 805 would have permitted district leaders, during layoffs, to furlough teachers who get ‘failing’ or “needs improvement” grades on their annual evaluations. Instead, we’re stuck with the old system – one 44 states have left behind – that forces us to look solely at years served, rather than students served.”

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Joy Resmovits | Los Angeles Times

“The fight over teacher tenure in California continues.

On Tuesday, former students who sued over the issue asked the state Supreme Court to hear their appeal of the judicially whipsawed Vergara v. California case.

Meanwhile lawmakers have introduced legislation that one opponent has labeled ‘Vergara Lite’ to change the way California’s educators are hired and fired.

In Vergara v. California, lawyers representing a diverse group of students claimed that the state laws governing the process through which teachers earn tenure and are laid off in reverse order of seniority and the cost of their dismissal hurt students. They argued that the laws were unconstitutional because they resulted in a disproportionate number of ineffective teachers working in minority schools.”

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